MasukMarco opened the back door. Killian slid inside still holding her and settled her across his lap instead of letting her sit on the seat. His arms locked around her immediately—one around her waist, the other across her thighs—holding her tight against his chest. The door shut with a solid click. The engine rumbled to life. Marco took the front passenger seat and said nothing the entire drive. The right-hand man had seen a lot over the years, but even he kept his eyes forward now, giving them the silence they needed.The SUV picked its way slowly along the rough forest track. Rain lashed the windows in sheets. Killian stared down at the top of her head, feeling the faint warmth of her breath against his collar. Her body still shook under his coat, but the tremors were slower now, exhaustion winning out. He kept one hand on the back of her head, fingers threaded gently through her damp hair, holding her exactly where she belonged. Against him. In his arms. Where she had alway
Killian stood in the doorway of the broken hut and let the rain drip from his hair onto the rotting floorboards. The grey dawn light behind him cut through the holes in the roof and fell across the small, curled shape in the corner. She looked even smaller than he remembered. Soaked clothes clung to her like a second skin. Blood streaked her knees in dark, dried lines. A fresh cut across her forehead had matted her hair. Her left ankle was swollen, thick and purple, the skin stretched tight above the ruined shoe. Her whole body shook with hard, uncontrollable tremors that rattled her shoulders against the wood.His jaw clenched once, hard enough that the muscle jumped. The violence simmering under his skin wanted to tear the entire forest apart for letting her get this far. But his face stayed calm. Controlled. He had learned a long time ago that rage was more useful when it stayed quiet.He moved slowly, lowering himself to one knee beside her the way a man might
Killian stood at the tree line while the handlers unclipped the dogs. Rain hammered down in sheets, turning the ground into black sludge that clung to his boots. He hadn’t slept. Hadn’t sat down since the study. The mansion was still blazing with lights behind him, men shouting updates into radios, but he was finished waiting inside those walls. He had given every order. Now he would finish this himself.“Release them,” he said.The two big black trackers lunged forward the moment the leashes dropped. They circled once, noses low, then locked onto the scent right at the back gate where she had slipped through the night before. Their barks sharpened into excited, urgent bays. They pulled hard on the long lines.Killian started walking. No flashlight. No radio. Just the steady crunch of his boots and the low rhythm of his own pulse. Marco fell beside him, rifle ready, but Killian didn’t glance at him. His eyes stayed fixed on the dogs. Every step took them deeper. Branches whipped his s
The dogs sounded closer now, their barks cutting through the rain like they had picked up my scent for real. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. My left ankle had swollen so bad inside my shoe that every step felt like someone was driving a nail through the bone. I limped hard, one hand pressed to a tree trunk for balance, the other clutching my side where a branch had ripped my shirt open earlier. Mud sucked at my feet and the rain kept pouring, cold and relentless, turning everything into a blur.I pushed through a thick patch of brambles that tore at my arms again. Fresh scratches burned. I didn’t feel them the way I should have. Everything had gone numb except the pain in my ankle and the heavy ache in my chest that kept saying this was it. This was how far I got. I stumbled out of the brambles and there it was, half-hidden behind a cluster of old pines: a small wooden hut, sagging like it had given up years ago. One wall leaned sideways. The roof had holes in it. The door hung crooke
The cold sank deeper now. My whole body shivered. My fingers went numb. The rain blurred everything—trees, ground, sky. I couldn’t see more than twenty feet ahead. I kept my head down and followed the slope of the land, hoping it would lead me somewhere, anywhere, away from him. My mind kept fracturing. One second I was thinking about the bus station Irina had told me about. The next I was remembering the feel of his thumb on my cheek in the dark. I slapped my own face once, hard, to snap myself back. Focus. Keep moving.Night came again. The second night. I had been running for almost twenty-four hours straight. My legs shook so badly I had to stop every few minutes and lean against a tree. The rain never let up. It drummed against the leaves and turned the forest floor into a slick mess. I was soaked to the skin. My teeth chattered nonstop. Hunger had turned into a constant sharp pain in my stomach. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt warm.I found another road just after d
LUNA POV:I kept running.The forest closed around me the second I left the gate behind, thick and black and full of things that grabbed at my clothes. Branches slapped my face and arms. Roots caught my shoes. I didn’t slow down. My lungs burned and my legs felt heavy already, but the only thing in my head was forward. Keep going. Don’t stop. The bundle Irina gave me dug into my spine with every step, money and phone and the promise of a new life if I could just make it far enough.I ran until the mansion lights disappeared completely. No more yellow glow through the trees. Just me and the dark and the sound of my own breathing. At some point the ground sloped down and I half-slid, half-ran, grabbing at saplings to keep from falling. My shirt tore on a sharp branch. I felt the sting across my ribs but I didn’t stop to look. I just kept moving.The night stretched on forever. I walked when my legs gave out, then forced myself to jog again. The cold settled deep in my bones. My teeth st
I stepped forward, reaching for the plate with my good hand.His hand shot out.He grabbed my right wrist—the burned one.Squeezed.His fingers clamped down directly over the bandage, over the raw blistered flesh underneath.The pain was instant and blinding. White-hot. Electric. Like he was crushin
Morning arrived with a boot to my ribs.Not a kick meant to break bone. Just a nudge. A reminder of where I was and what I was."Up," Killian ordered.I uncurled from the rug slowly, my body stiff and aching. My joints locked up from sleeping on the cold floor, the damp draft that swept under the do
"Look at yourself."I looked.I saw a stranger. Gaunt. Pale. Hollow. The gray dress hung off my shoulders like a burial shroud. My eyes were two black holes in a skull.I looked like a corpse that forgot to die.I looked away."Ugly," Killian whispered in my ear, his breath hot. "Broken. Ruined."He
The chain rattled.It was the first sound of the morning, a metallic scrape against wood that pulled me out of the gray fog I'd been floating in.I woke up on the rug at the foot of Killian's bed. My body was curled into a tight knot, knees pulled to my chest, spine pressed hard against the mahogany







