Chapter 6: Not Kade

A man stepped out from behind the trees, and the second I saw his face, Kael went rigid beside me like he'd seen a ghost.

"You," Kael said. Just one word, but it came out low and cold, nothing like the calm voice I'd gotten used to over the last two days.

The man smiled like he'd been waiting for that reaction. "Kael. It's been a long time."

I looked between them, my heart still pounding from the run, from Damian's voice still echoing somewhere behind us in the trees. "You know him."

Kael didn't answer right away. That silence told me more than any answer could have.

The stranger wore no colors I recognized, no crest, nothing that marked him as belonging to any kingdom I knew. But four more men stepped out behind him, all watching us the same careful way hunters watch something they've already decided is theirs. My legs were still shaking from the run, from everything with Damian just minutes ago, and now this. It felt like the whole night was just one threat after another, no room to breathe in between.

"I go by Vaughn now," the man said, eyes sliding from Kael to me. "And you must be the girl everyone's talking about."

"Stay back," Kael said, pushing me slightly behind him.

Vaughn laughed, easy and unbothered. "Funny, coming from you. Last I checked, you weren't in a position to protect anyone."

"What is he talking about," I asked.

Kael's jaw tightened. "Not now, Elena."

"No," I said, stepping forward instead of back. "I'm done being the only one in the dark. What is he talking about."

Vaughn's smile widened like he'd been hoping for exactly this. "He didn't tell you? Kael used to work for Alpha Thorne. Recruiting. Tracking. He was very good at finding people who didn't want to be found."

The words hit like a slap. I turned to Kael. "Is that true."

"It's not that simple," Kael said.

"It's exactly that simple," Vaughn said. "He hunted Aurelians for us for almost two years before he decided to grow a conscience. Guess he found a better cause to attach himself to."

My stomach dropped. The man who pulled me out of the forest, the one who told me to trust him over the guards I grew up with, used to hunt people like me for a living. I thought about every word he'd said to me since that first night, wondering now which parts were real and which parts were just him doing his job again, just with a different target.

"You're lying," I said, but my voice wasn't as steady as I wanted it to be.

"Ask him yourself," Vaughn said.

I looked at Kael. He didn't deny it. He just stood there, jaw clenched, eyes on Vaughn like he wanted to put him in the ground.

"Kael," I said quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. "Is any of this true."

"I did things I'm not proud of," he said, not looking at me. "That was before I understood what Thorne actually wanted with the bloodline. I left. That's the part that matters."

"Left," Vaughn repeated, amused. "You didn't leave. You ran. And now you're going to hand her over to make up for it."

"That's not happening," Kael said.

"It's not your choice anymore." Vaughn's voice sharpened, all the humor gone from it in an instant. "Alpha Thorne wants her alive. He doesn't care how she gets to him. If that means going through you, so be it."

My mind was spinning, trying to keep up with everything happening at once. Renata moved closer to me, her hand tight around my wrist.

"We need to run," she whispered.

"They'll catch us," Kael said, not taking his eyes off Vaughn. "We can't outrun five of them, not after everything Elena's already been through today."

"Smart boy," Vaughn said. "Here's how this works. You hand her over quietly, and we forget we ever saw you. Fight us, and we take her anyway, except now you're bleeding out in these woods for nothing."

I felt the heat rising in my chest again, the same pressure from before, the wolf under my skin stirring awake, like it wanted out just as badly as I wanted to run.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said, forcing steel into my voice even though my legs still felt like they might give out.

Vaughn's eyes flicked to me, something calculating behind them. "That's cute. You think you have a say in this."

"She has more of a say than you think," Kael said. "You've seen what she can do. You felt it three miles out, same as everyone else did."

For the first time, something like doubt crossed Vaughn's face.

"She's untrained," he said, but it sounded less sure than before.

"Untrained and still strong enough to level a hall full of wolves," Kael said. "You want to test that theory, be my guest."

The two men behind Vaughn shifted uneasily, glancing at each other. Vaughn noticed. His confidence cracked just slightly.

"Thorne wants her breathing," he said. "But he never said in what condition."

That was the moment everything happened at once.

Vaughn lunged, faster than I expected, and Kael moved to block him before he even got close to me. Renata pulled me backward, shouting something I couldn't fully hear over the sound of my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. The other men rushed forward, and the forest that had felt quiet just seconds ago exploded into chaos, snarls and shouting and the sharp crack of bodies colliding.

I stumbled back, watching Kael fight two men at once, blood already showing on his arm from a blade one of them carried. My whole body screamed to help him, but the shift wouldn't come, not on command, not the way I needed it to. It scared me more than anything else that night, realizing whatever power woke up inside me during the rejection wasn't something I could just call on whenever I wanted it.

"Elena, run," Renata shouted.

"I'm not leaving him."

"You have to. If they get you, none of this matters."

I hesitated, watching Kael take a hit that sent him stumbling into a tree, watching Vaughn stalk toward him with something sharp catching the moonlight in his hand.

Then I heard something crack behind me, loud enough to cut through everything else.

I turned just in time to see a shape drop down from the trees above us, landing hard between me and Renata, blocking the path we'd been about to run down.

Not one of Vaughn's men.

Someone new.

Someone wearing Draven colors.

Selene's colors.

My mind couldn't keep up. First Kael's secret, now this. It felt like every step I took just uncovered another layer of people who wanted something from me, none of them telling me the whole truth.

The woman straightened up slowly, eyes locking onto mine, and for one terrifying second I realized she wasn't looking at me like a target.

She was looking at me like she knew exactly who I was, and exactly what I was worth.

"Elena Voss," she said. "You have no idea how many people want a piece of you right now."

Her tone wasn't threatening exactly, more like someone stating a fact she found mildly interesting, which somehow made it worse.

Behind her, more shapes started dropping from the trees, one after another, until I realized we weren't facing five hunters anymore.

We were surrounded.