Chapter Eighteen - Run with the Wolves ( Kael's POV )

The splinter of wood rang like a gunshot through the safehouse.

Kael didn’t wait for the second. His hand crushed mine as he yanked me toward the back, his wolf already at the surface. I could feel it in the heat of his grip, the rippling energy radiating from him as if his skin was too thin to hold the beast inside.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered, his voice a guttural growl.

Darius’s blade sang free as he turned toward the door. The last thing I saw before Kael shoved me into the night was Darius’s face, grim, steady, a soldier already resigned to whatever fate came with his stand.

The forest swallowed us whole.

The air outside was sharp, the tang of pine and frost biting my lungs as we plunged into the undergrowth. Every shadow seemed alive, every branch a claw reaching for me. My breath hitched as the child shifted inside me, as if sensing the urgency, the danger.

Behind us, the crash of bodies through wood, the clang of steel, and then, the howl.

It rattled through the trees, low and long, more command than warning. The hunters were calling each other, tightening their net.

Kael’s hand clamped harder around mine. “Faster.”

I stumbled but forced my legs to move, heart hammering. The forest floor was uneven, roots rising like snakes, leaves slick with morning dew. Kael pulled me through it like I weighed nothing, his body a shield cutting through the dark.

“How many?” I gasped.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, his eyes flashing back at me, bright and burning. “We outrun them.”

Another howl split the air, closer this time. My chest squeezed. “We can’t outrun all of them!”

Kael’s wolf rumbled in his chest. “We don’t have to. We just have to make them lose the trail.”

Branches whipped against my arms, tearing at my sleeves. My lungs burned. The safehouse was gone, swallowed by the forest and the hunters tearing it apart, but the sound of pursuit only grew louder. They were trained for this, bred to hunt wolves like Kael, and now me.

I tripped over a root, pain lancing up my shin. Kael caught me mid-fall, hauling me against his chest. His scent, earth, smoke, and something electric, flooded me for one fleeting second before he shoved me back onto my feet.

“Keep moving, Aria!” His voice cracked with desperation.

The child stirred again, sharp this time, as if echoing Kael’s urgency. My palm pressed to my stomach even as my legs kept pumping. “I’m trying!”

Ahead, the trees thickened, a wall of thorns and undergrowth. Kael didn’t hesitate. He barreled through, clearing a path with raw force, dragging me after him. Branches snapped, leaves tore, and we spilled into a narrow ravine, the earth dropping away beneath us.

“Down,” Kael said, sliding into the slope.

I slid after him, dirt clawing at my hands as gravity dragged me down. Rocks bit into my palms, my knees scraped, but there was no stopping. At the bottom, we tumbled into a shallow stream, the icy water shocking my skin.

Kael hauled me up instantly, scanning the tree line. His chest heaved, sweat and mud streaking his face. His wolf shimmered beneath the surface, eyes burning, fangs flashing with every ragged breath.

“Good,” he muttered. “The water will mask our scent.”

I looked up the ravine, terror clenching my throat. Shadows moved at the ridge, figures against the pale dawn sky. They were too close.

Kael grabbed my hand again, pulling me into the stream. “We follow it. Stay low. Don’t stop.”

The current dragged at my legs, water biting cold, but I kept moving. Every splash sounded like a drumbeat announcing our position, but Kael pressed forward, determined, relentless.

Another howl rose, this one answered from farther downstream. My stomach dropped. They weren’t just chasing. They were herding.

“They’re cutting us off,” I whispered.

Kael’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. He scanned the forest, his wolf calculating. Then he snarled, low and savage. “Not if I cut through first.”

He lifted me suddenly, his strength terrifying in its ease, and carried me across the stream to the opposite bank. I barely had time to cling to him before he was bounding up the slope, claws scraping earth as his wolf tore through the human shell.

“Kael....”

“Hold on.” His voice was already distorted, layered with the beast.

The forest blurred around us as he ran, faster than anything human could. My heart slammed against my ribs, fear and awe mixing until I couldn’t tell one from the other. His heat burned against me, his wolf straining against skin, desperate to break free fully.

But he didn’t shift. Not yet. Carrying me demanded control, and full shift would mean leaving me vulnerable. He wouldn’t risk it.

A sharp whistle cut through the forest. Then, the hiss of arrows.

Kael twisted, his body wrapping around me as two arrows thudded into the trees where my head had been. He snarled, the sound vibrating through my bones.

“They’re closing in.” My voice shook.

His response was pure Alpha command. “They’ll die before they touch you.”

The chase stretched into a blur of breath and blood. Every step was survival, every choice a gamble. Kael shifted paths constantly, zigzagging, doubling back, leaping streams, using every trick his wolf knew to confuse the hunters. Still, they pressed closer, relentless as shadows.

At one point, Kael shoved me into a hollow beneath a fallen tree, pressing a finger to my lips before vanishing into the brush. The forest exploded with snarls and screams. Kael’s wolf unleashed. I crouched in the dirt, heart in my throat, praying he would come back.

When he did, he was bloodied but alive, his eyes wild. He grabbed my hand, yanking me back into motion before I could even speak.

“They’ll call more,” he said, voice ragged. “We have to get farther. Past the ridge. There’s an old outpost, my father’s. If it still stands, we can rest there.”

“Rest?” I almost laughed, hysteria bubbling. “You think there’s rest left for us?”

His gaze cut to mine, fierce and unyielding. “There will be. I’ll make it so.”

By the time the sun broke fully, painting the forest gold, we were miles from the safehouse. My legs shook, my lungs screamed, but Kael didn’t slow. He carried me when I faltered, his strength the only thing keeping us ahead of death.

But the howls never stopped.

The hunters were tireless. Their voices carried across the trees, echoing from ridge to ridge, a chorus of pursuit. My skin prickled with every sound, knowing they weren’t just chasing. They were promising.

Promising they wouldn’t stop until they had us.

At last, Kael pulled me into a clearing. The air was sharper here, thinner, the ridge. My chest burned as I staggered to a stop, staring at the ruin half-hidden in the rocks.

Stone walls crumbled beneath ivy. A collapsed roof sagged inward. But it was shelter.

Kael’s hand was tight on mine as he pulled me inside the ruins. “Here,” he said, his voice shaking with exhaustion but edged with determination. “We’ll make our stand if we have to.”

I pressed my back against the cold stone, sliding down until I sat on the dirt floor. My body trembled, my hand clutching my belly. The child moved again, restless, as if they knew the danger pressing in from all sides.

Kael crouched in front of me, his forehead pressing to mine. His breath was ragged, hot against my skin.

“We’re not done running,” he whispered. “But you need to breathe. Just for a moment.”

I let out a shaky laugh that broke halfway. “A moment. That’s all we ever have, isn’t it?”

His lips brushed mine, a kiss fierce and fleeting, as if he was kissing life into me.

The moment shattered with another howl.

Closer. Too close.

Kael’s eyes blazed gold as he rose, pulling his blade free, his wolf crouched at the edge of his skin. “They’ve found us.”

I pushed myself upright, fear steadying into resolve. “Then let them come.”

Kael’s gaze cut to me, pride and terror warring in his eyes. Then he nodded once, a silent vow.

The hunters were here. The chase had ended.

And the fight was about to begin.