Chapter Nineteen - Flight Through the Fire ( Kael's POV)

The ruin smelled of damp stone and rot, but it felt safer than the open woods. Thick ivy draped across broken walls, shadows pooling in the cracks, the air heavy with dust. Kael pushed me deeper into the collapsed chamber, his body a barrier between me and the danger closing in.

The silence didn’t last long.

First came the crunch of boots on leaves. Then the faint scrape of steel. A whistle split the air, sharp and commanding, answered by another from the ridge above. They had us surrounded.

Kael’s chest rose and fell in steady, lethal rhythm, golden eyes burning like firelight. “Stay low. No matter what happens, Aria, don’t run until I tell you.”

My throat was dry. “Kael....”

His gaze cut to me, fierce, almost desperate. “Promise me.”

I swallowed the terror clawing up my throat and nodded. “I promise.”

The promise hadn’t even settled between us when the first hunter stepped into the ruin.

He was cloaked in black, his hood shadowing a face marred by scars. The bow in his hands gleamed with iron, tipped arrows, the kind that could pierce through even a wolf’s hide. Behind him, others fanned out, a half-circle of death closing in.

Kael’s growl rolled through the chamber, low and primal. The sound vibrated through my bones, awakening every instinct inside me to crouch, to hide, to protect.

“Romano,” the scarred hunter sneered, his voice carrying a cruel edge. “The Council sends its regards. Surrender, and perhaps the woman dies quickly.”

Kael’s lips peeled back over his teeth, the Alpha in him surging forward. “Come and try.”

The words were a trigger.

The ruin exploded with violence.

Kael launched himself at the scarred hunter with speed that blurred the air. The man loosed an arrow, but Kael twisted mid-leap, claws ripping the bow aside before his fist slammed into the hunter’s chest with bone, cracking force.

The others surged forward. Steel flashed in torchlight, boots pounded stone, and the chamber filled with snarls and shouts.

I pressed back against the wall, one hand braced over my belly, the other groping for anything I could use as a weapon. My fingers closed around a jagged stone, sharp, edged and heavy enough to break bone if I had to.

Kael was everywhere at once. He moved like a storm, half-shifted, his body still mostly human but the wolf bleeding through, claws ripping, fangs flashing, eyes glowing with unholy light. He was rage embodied, every strike fueled by the promise he had made to me.

A hunter lunged at his side with a blade. Kael caught his wrist mid-swing, bones snapping under his grip, then tore his throat open with a savage bite.

Another tried to flank him from behind, but Kael spun, using the dead man’s body as a shield against the incoming arrow. The shaft buried deep in his comrade’s back. Kael hurled the corpse into the archer, both crashing into the wall with a sickening crunch.

Still, more poured in. The ruin echoed with battle cries, the clash of steel on stone, the wet sound of tearing flesh.

And then, Darius appeared.

He burst through a gap in the wall, bloodied but alive, his blade already red. His eyes locked on me for a split second, relief flashing before he turned his fury on the hunters.

“Hold the line, Kael!” he roared, cutting down a man who had slipped too close. “Don’t let them break formation!”

Kael’s answering snarl was pure Alpha command, the kind that shook the air itself.

Together, they fought like wolves born of the same blood, Kael a storm of claws and brute force, Darius a blade of precision and control. Hunters fell one after another, but for every body on the ground, another seemed to step through the shadows.

One broke past them.

I barely had time to raise the stone before the hunter lunged at me, knife aimed at my throat. Instinct surged. I swung the rock with every ounce of strength I had. It connected with a crack, blood spraying as the man reeled.

But he didn’t fall.

Snarling, he grabbed my arm, twisting hard enough to make me cry out. The knife flashed again, but before it found me, Kael was there.

He ripped the hunter away, slamming him into the wall with such force the stone cracked. The man’s scream ended in a wet gurgle as Kael’s claws tore through his chest.

Kael’s face turned to me, wild and blood-streaked. “Stay back!”

“I’m trying!” My voice broke, the stone slick with blood in my trembling grip.

Another whistle pierced the chaos. This one was different, sharper, urgent. The hunters began to fall back, retreating to the edges of the ruin.

Kael froze, chest heaving, suspicion flashing across his face. “Why are they...”

The answer came in the form of fire.

An arrow, burning bright, shot through the window and buried itself into the far wall. Flame erupted, racing across the ivy, devouring dry wood and crumbling mortar.

“They’re going to burn us out,” Darius snapped, his blade cutting down the last straggler. “Trap us in here.”

Smoke curled thick and fast, choking the chamber. The fire spread with terrifying speed, flames licking higher, heat searing my skin. My lungs burned as I coughed, clutching my belly tighter.

Kael’s head whipped toward me, his eyes flaring. “We move. Now.”

He grabbed my arm, hauling me toward the broken wall where Darius had entered. But more hunters appeared, blocking the gap, their torches blazing. Behind us, the fire raged hotter, smoke turning the air black.

“Kael,” I gasped, fear clawing at my chest. “We’re trapped.”

For a heartbeat, despair flickered in his eyes. Then his wolf surged fully forward, breaking the last of his restraint.

His body stretched, tore, transformed, bones shifting beneath his skin as fur rippled across muscle. The sound was terrible and beautiful, flesh and beast melding into one. When he stood, it wasn’t Kael the man, but Kael the Alpha wolf, massive, golden-eyed, a beast forged of fire and blood.

The hunters hesitated. Even trained killers feared what stood before them.

Kael lunged.

The battle turned feral. His jaws crushed throats, his claws shredded armor, his body a whirlwind of death. Darius fought at his side, his blade flashing silver in the firelight.

I could do nothing but watch, every nerve screaming, every instinct begging me to flee. But there was nowhere to go. The fire closed in on one side, the hunters on the other, Kael and Darius the only shield between me and death.

A torch flew past, landing at my feet. Flames licked toward me. I kicked it aside, stomping desperately, but sparks caught on my clothes. Panic flared. I slapped them out, coughing on the thick smoke.

“Aria!” Darius’s voice cut through the chaos. He sliced down another hunter, then shouted, “The east wall! There’s a break, go!”

I stumbled toward it, vision swimming, smoke stinging my eyes. Cold air hit me like salvation as I clawed through the narrow gap, collapsing into the forest beyond.

Kael followed, tearing through the last of the hunters with teeth and claws before leaping through the same gap. He landed beside me, shifting back to human form with ragged gasps, blood and soot streaked across his skin. Darius arrived a heartbeat later, still alive, his blade coated in the hunters’ blood.

The ruin collapsed behind us in a storm of sparks and ash, swallowing the fire and the bodies of those who had hunted us.

We didn’t stop.

Kael pulled me through the forest, off the main paths, twisting through valleys and streams until we had created a day’s worth of distance. His instincts led us to an abandoned cabin, hidden by brush and thick pine trees. It smelled of earth, of age, and of solitude.

“This will do for now,” Kael said, pressing me against the door. His eyes scanned the forest, still alert, still ready to fight.

Inside, the cabin was empty but intact. Dust and cobwebs clung to the corners, but it was solid. A hearth remained, cold, a few broken shelves lined the walls, and a small loft could provide a place to rest.

I sank onto the floor, exhausted, hands trembling over my belly. “We made it…” I whispered, disbelief and relief mingling.

Kael knelt beside me, brushing a strand of hair from my face. “We’re safe for now,” he said, though his jaw was tight. “They’ll be looking. We’ve bought hours, not days.”

Darius leaned against the far wall, blade still drawn. “We’ll need to fortify this place. Cover tracks. Make sure the Council doesn’t find us again.”

I pressed my head against Kael’s shoulder, the baby stirring in response. The weight of the child, of prophecy, of the war surrounding us, pressed down, but for the first time in hours, we were alive.

Kael’s hand settled over mine on my belly. “We survived the first wave,” he whispered. “We’ll survive the next.”

And for now, that had to be enough.