CHAPTER THREE

Aveline

For a few seconds, everything around me disappeared.

The forest, the fallen branches beneath my feet, even the weight of Briar’s body pressed against mine—none of it felt real. Only him.

The man standing before me with eyes like burning gold. The man whose aura had nearly crushed my wolf into submission.

The man who, for ten years, had hunted me like a ghost in the night.

And fate—fate—had the audacity to bind me to him?

I felt it the moment it hit him. Like a switch being flipped, like a storm breaking through a silent sky. His entire body stilled, and the look on his face changed. Just for a second.

Pain. Shock. Confusion.

Then rage. So much rage.

And the pull? The bond?

It latched onto me without permission. Without mercy. I could feel the invisible thread tying us together, wrapping around my chest like a chain. His scent crashed into my senses—dark leather, musk, something wild and ancient. And my wolf… she stirred.

Mate, she whispered. Mate.

I staggered back, heat prickling across my skin. This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right.

I’d been running from death for years, but I never expected my end to come in the form of the man fate had chosen for me.

Matteo Cruz Valentino.

The biker Alpha. The blood-hungry wolf who wanted me erased from existence. And now?

Now I was his mate.

I barely processed what happened next. One of his men grabbed Briar, but Matteo held up a hand.

“No. Leave her.”

“Matteo—” Kai started, but was cut off with a single glare.

Matteo turned back to me, eyes unreadable, voice a gravel-lined whisper. “You’re coming with me.”

I stiffened, my voice a shaky whisper. “Where?”

He didn’t answer. Just reached for me.

I jerked away, but his hand locked around my wrist like iron. His touch burned, not in a warm way, but in a way that made my skin crawl with dread.

“Let me go!” I snapped.

His gaze hardened. “You don’t get to make demands, Carrington.”

“Don’t call me that,” I spat.

“It’s who you are. Aveline Carrington. Daughter of traitors. Last of a disgraced bloodline.” His lips curled in contempt. “Fated to me. How poetic.”

I tried to pull free, but it was useless. His grip was vice-tight. I looked back at Briar—frozen, helpless, a flicker of fury in her eyes.

“I swear I’ll find you,” she growled.

“I know,” I whispered.

Matteo didn’t give me time to say more. He dragged me through the forest like I weighed nothing, moving with lethal grace, his wolves flanking us like silent shadows. I stumbled to keep up, breath ragged, heart screaming.

This was a nightmare.

But I was awake.

He didn’t speak until we reached a clearing where black bikes gleamed under the moonlight, their chrome glinting like knives.

He shoved me toward one. “Get on.”

I planted my feet. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

His head tilted. The faintest smile touched his lips, but there was no humor in it—only cruelty. “Yes, you are.”

“I’m not your prisoner.”

“Oh, you’re worse than that,” he said. “You’re my mate.”

The word rolled off his tongue like venom.

I took a step back. “Then reject me. Reject the bond. I’ll go, and you’ll never see me again.”

He didn’t even blink.

“No.”

“Why? You don’t want me. You hate me!”

His voice dropped low. “Exactly.”

My blood ran cold.

“You think this is something I wanted?” he said. “The moon must be laughing. To bind me to you? To her?”

I swallowed hard, every part of me screaming to run—but the bond held me frozen.

“I would rather die than be tied to you,” I whispered.

A flicker passed through his eyes—pain or fury, I couldn’t tell—but it disappeared as fast as it came.

He leaned in, voice like steel dragged across gravel.

“Being my mate isn’t something you get to choose. It’s not romantic. It’s not a gift. It’s law. And if you value death so much, Carrington, then I’ll deny you that too.”

I stared at him, numb. “What does that mean?”

“It means I won’t kill you,” he hissed. “No. Death is too easy for someone like you.”

His hand curled into my hair and yanked my head back slightly—not hard enough to hurt, just enough to dominate. I didn’t cry out, wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“I’ll make your life a living hell,” he growled. “You’ll wake up every day wishing you’d never been born. I’ll make you carry the weight of every life your family took, every betrayal they left behind. You’ll breathe in guilt. Choke on it.”

“You can’t keep me,” I snapped, heart pounding.

“Watch me.”

And that was the moment I knew.

I wasn’t being executed.

No—fate had dealt a worse punishment. I was being claimed by the very monster who wanted my suffering more than my death.

A fate worse than dying.

He let me go suddenly, and I stumbled, catching myself against the bike.

My voice was smaller now. “Why not reject me?”

His jaw tightened. “Because that would set you free. And I want you trapped. Forever.”

I felt my wolf tremble inside me—angry, cornered, confused.

“Mating me won’t change what happened,” I whispered. “I was just a child—”

“Don’t,” he snapped. “Don’t play innocent. Your blood is poison. Your name is rot. I don’t care how old you were. You lived while my family burned.”

I flinched, his words hitting harder than a blade.

“You’re going to pay for that,” he said. “And I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t cry. I just climbed on the back of his bike, heart hollow, spirit caged. Because deep down, I knew the truth. I wasn’t walking into captivity. I was riding straight into hell.

The engine roared to life beneath us, a deafening growl that vibrated through my bones. Matteo didn’t speak again, and I didn’t try to.

We sped through the woods, trees blurring past, the night swallowing us whole. My arms stayed rigid at my sides, refusing to wrap around him, even as the speed made my body lurch dangerously close to falling.

He didn’t care.

Let me fall, I thought. Let me tumble off the back of this bike and split myself open on the rocks. But even as the fantasy formed in my mind, I knew he wouldn’t allow it.

Death was too merciful for what he had planned.

I looked up at the moon, full and mocking, hanging heavy in the sky like it was watching this twisted fate unravel. My wolf whimpered quietly inside me, not in fear—but in mourning.

She didn’t want this either.

She wanted her mate.

And that… that made it so much worse.

Because no matter how much I hated him—Matteo Cruz Valentino—some ancient part of me had already started to belong to him.

And if I didn’t find a way out soon, there wouldn’t be any part of Aveline Carrington left to save.