Chapter Six: No One Touches What Is Mine 

Amara’s POV

I looked from Thiago to the open car door. “Is something wrong with this car?”

“You’re coming in mine.”

Celeste stood beside his vehicle. Even from where I was, I could see her fingers tighten around the strap of her bag.

“Your fiancée is there,” I said quietly when he came closer.

“I can see her.”

“Then perhaps you can see why this is a bad idea.”

He glanced towards the gate, where the first escort vehicle waited. “We have a long drive ahead. Get in, Amara.”

I could refuse. Everyone already knew his command would do nothing to me. But my mother was standing on the steps, trying to smile, and I could not bear to give her another thing to worry about.

I went to his car. Thiago sat between us, which kept Celeste from having to look directly at me. It did nothing to stop me from noticing how her hand rested near his on the seat.

I turned towards the window. My father stood with an arm around my mother. I lifted my hand, and she waved until the car passed through the gates.

“We can call them soon,” Nia said.

I nodded before remembering she did not need me to.

Dario sat beside the driver, speaking quietly into his radio. The other vehicles settled around ours as we left Willowmere. I watched the familiar shops disappear, then the last turning I knew.

Thiago opened a folder. Celeste checked her phone. I tried to imagine telling someone yesterday that this was how I would leave home.

After a while, he held a bottle of water towards me.

“Soren said you should keep drinking.”

I took it and checked the seal. He watched without commenting.

“How is your head?”

“Better.”

“Tell me if that changes.”

Celeste put down her phone. “Mine is perfectly well, in case anyone is wondering.”

Thiago turned towards her. “Celeste.”

“I’m glad someone is comfortable.”

I looked at her. “Do I look comfortable to you?”

Her green eyes moved over my face. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then she looked away, and I returned to the window.

Yesterday, she knew whom she was going to marry. Today, I was sitting beside him. I could understand her anger. I still wanted her to stop directing it at me.

The houses grew farther apart. Open fields gave way to trees, and I slept for a little while with my head against the window. When I woke, Thiago’s folder was closed. His hand rested on the seat between us.

I looked at it longer than I should.

“You could hold it,” Nia suggested.

“And you could help me think of something sensible.”

“That was sensible.”

I took another drink of water.

More than two hours passed before Dario straightened in his seat. His radio crackled, and the car began slowing.

“Obstruction ahead,” he said. “The lead vehicle is checking.”

Thiago looked through the windscreen. Around the bend, a small delivery truck stood across part of the road. Its bonnet was open, but I could not see a driver.

“Keep your distance,” Thiago told our driver.

The words were barely out before something struck the lead vehicle. There was a sharp bang, followed by the sound of metal scraping stone.

Dario reached for the radio. “Reverse. Now.”

Our driver turned, but another engine roared behind us. A second truck came out of a side track and stopped across the road. Wolves poured from the trees before our rear escort could turn.

Thiago pushed my head down.

“Both of you, stay below the windows.”

Celeste crouched immediately. I grabbed the edge of the seat as our car jolted to a stop.

Outside, men shouted. A growl came from so close to my door that I felt it through the metal. Something heavy landed on the roof, and a claw scraped down the glass.

“Dario, keep someone with Soren. We need the rear route open.”

“I’m already moving.”

Thiago leaned across me to look out. Cedarwood and black pepper reached me, absurdly familiar in the middle of all that noise.

“Listen carefully,” he said. “Stay inside until one of us opens this door.”

I caught his wrist before he could move.

He looked down at my hand, then at me.

I wanted to tell him not to go. The words frightened me almost as much as the wolves outside.

“There are too many,” I whispered.

His expression changed, but only for a moment. He loosened my fingers gently.

“Stay down.”

He moved out through the other door behind Dario. A roar followed, deep enough that Nia answered inside me.

I lifted my head just enough to see.

Thiago shifted beside the car. Black fur replaced the torn fabric of his shirt, and a huge wolf landed on all four paws. He was larger than any wolf I knew. Gold burned in his eyes as he turned towards the men coming down the slope.

Our warriors were shifting too. Dario’s dark grey wolf moved towards the rear escort while two others stayed near our car.

A man stood above the road with a blade in one hand.

“Give us Amara Saye, and your people leave alive.”

My stomach dropped.

He knew my name.

Celeste looked at me, then towards the man. “What have you brought upon us?”

“What do you mean by that?” Nero’s answer came in a growl. The man stepped back, and three wolves sprang towards him from opposite sides.

He didn’t rush after the man on the slope. He stayed near the car, driving one attacker against the barrier before turning on the next. When a smaller wolf tried to get behind him, one of our warriors caught it. They moved together so quickly I could hardly follow them.

Then something struck Celeste’s window.

She pulled away before a claw broke through the glass. Her fangs appeared. She caught the foreleg pushing inside and drove her own claws into it. The wolf screamed and fell back.

“Keep your head down,” she snapped at me.

This time, I listened.

The driver locked the doors again and reached for the radio. He was trying to find a way past the damaged lead vehicle. I could hear him telling Dario that the truck behind us was still blocking the road.

A cry came from my side of the car.

I looked out and saw one of our men on the ground. Blood spread across his trouser leg. Another man was coming towards him, watching the car instead of the person at his feet.

For one brief moment, his eyes met mine.

I reached for his thoughts before I considered the pain.

[Finish the guard. Get her out before the Alpha turns.]

I pulled back with a gasp. My head throbbed, but I understood him perfectly.

“Open my door,” I told the driver.

“Miss, the Alpha said—”

“He’s going to kill your man.”

The attacker lifted his blade. I hit the unlock button and shoved the door out with both hands. It caught him as he bent, knocking him against the injured warrior.

“Get in!” I reached down, catching the warrior beneath one arm. He was heavy, and his leg would not support him. The attacker pushed the door back towards us.

Celeste grabbed the wounded man’s other arm.

“Pull,” she ordered.

Together, we dragged him across the footwell. His blood streaked my dress. I tried to close the door, but the attacker caught it.

His teeth lengthened as he looked at me.

I reached inward for the stillness I sometimes called when nothing else could save me. Pain struck before I could hold it. Nia cried out, and the man kept moving.

Then black fur filled the space outside.

Nero knocked him away from the door. Another wolf leapt at Nero from the side, sinking its teeth into his shoulder before he threw it off.

I heard myself cry his name.

Our driver slammed the door shut. Celeste pulled off her scarf and pressed it against the warrior’s leg.

“Hold this.”

I put both hands where she showed me. The man groaned, and I looked at his face.

“Stay with us,” I said. “The healer is here. He’ll help you.”

He nodded once, his eyes closing before opening again.

I kept talking to him because I did not know what else to do. I told him my name, although everyone outside seemed to know it already. I asked for his. He told me ‘Bren’.

“All right, Bren. Look at me.”

The noise began to change. Fewer feet struck the road. A howl rose from the trees, and the men above the slope started running.

Nero took one step after them, then looked back at the car. Blood darkened the fur around his shoulder.

Dario’s wolf dragged a man away from the rear truck and held him down. Two of our warriors chased the last attackers far enough to clear the road before returning. No one followed them deep into the trees.

When the driver opened the door, I refused to move my hands.

“He’s bleeding.”

“I can see,” Soren said, kneeling beside me. “You did the right thing. Let me take over now.”

I shifted back slowly. My fingers felt stiff, and there was blood on my bracelet.

Celeste climbed out through the other side. I followed Soren’s instructions while two men helped Bren onto the road. Only when the healer told me again that I could let go did I realise I was still holding his sleeve.

“He’ll live?” I asked.

“I intend to make sure of it.”

I nodded and looked up. Thiago and the other wolves were changing back.

I turned so quickly that I nearly walked into the car. Both hands went over my eyes.

“What is it?” Thiago asked.

“You’re naked.”

There was a pause. Behind him, someone opened the rear compartment of an escort vehicle.

“I noticed,” he said.

“Then do something about it.”

Fabric rustled. Dario murmured something I could not hear, and Thiago told him to check the road.

I waited until a hand touched my elbow.

“You can look now.”

Thiago wore dark trousers. He held a shirt in his uninjured hand, and blood ran from the wound in his shoulder.

I lowered my hands. “That needs treatment.”

His gaze moved over me instead. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m not. This is Bren’s.”

“Your arm.”

I looked down. A thin cut crossed my forearm, probably from the broken glass. Until he pointed it out, I did not feel it.

“It’s small.”

He took a clean cloth from one of the men and pressed it into my hand. His fingers were warm against mine. For a few seconds, I forgot to be frightened of him.

“You opened the door,” he said.

“They were going to kill Bren.”

“You could have called one of us.”

“There wasn’t time.” I looked past him towards the wounded warrior. “I couldn’t watch it happen.”

Thiago followed my gaze. Whatever he intended to say stayed behind his teeth.

Celeste stopped beside him. “Look at your shoulder. All this because they came for her.”

“She did not attack us.”

“That isn’t what I said.”

A harsh laugh came from the man Dario held beside the truck. His wrists were secured behind him now, but he lifted his head when Thiago turned.

“You’re bleeding for an Unbound.”

The road seemed to become quieter. One of the warriors looked at me. Then another did.

My hands tightened around the cloth.

“You know what she is,” the man continued. “We’re doing what your own orders say should be done.”

Thiago went still.

For a moment, I saw him hear it. The same fear. The same certainty that someone like me should not be allowed to live. Yesterday, he was the man discussing my kind in my father’s study.

Today, his blood was on the road because he stood between me and them.

He moved beside me, close enough that his arm brushed mine. When he spoke, he did not look away from the captive.

“No one touches what is mine.”