Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 151 - Chapitre 160

They reached a short stretch where the passage narrowed around a stack of folded linen baskets. Mira stepped around them, then stopped when a door ahead opened. A woman emerged carrying a tall stack of freshly washed sheets. Aria nearly walked straight into her. Mira caught Aria’s arm and drew her toward the wall just as the woman turned into the passage. The stack of linen obscured most of the woman’s face. She moved carefully, looking down to make sure the sheets did not slip from her arms. There was nowhere to retreat. The baskets blocked one side. The wall pressed close on the other. Aria and Mira stood in the narrow space between them, and the woman was approaching directly toward them. Aria’s first instinct was to turn around. Mira’s fingers tightened against her sleeve. “Stay,” she murmured. The linen woman came closer. Aria lowered her gaze, trying to look like someone who had a reason to be standing there. Her heart hammered against her ribs. The woman’s steps were s

The mansion was behind them, but Aria could still hear it. Not clearly. Not in any way she could have explained to someone else. The sounds of Blackthorn had faded as they moved farther from the service exit, yet her mind continued to supply them: the scrape of boots against stone, the distant murmur of servants, the heavy doors closing inside the house. Even the faintest rustle of leaves seemed capable of becoming a footstep if she listened too closely. She kept her head lowered and followed Mira through the trees. The ground sloped away from the estate, uneven beneath the thin covering of fallen leaves. Bare branches reached across their path, and the damp earth yielded softly under Aria’s shoes. She held her cloak close with one hand and kept the other near the strap of her bag, trying to stop it from shifting against her side. Mira moved several paces ahead, choosing the darker patches beneath the trees. She did not hurry so much as maintain a steady, determined pace that left

Mira looked down the path ahead, then back at the figure. “Which means we should not tell them by walking in a straight line.” Aria almost laughed, but the sound caught in her throat. “You make that sound easy.” “It is not easy. It is simply the next thing we need to consider.” “And what do you suggest?” “First, we stop standing here as though we are waiting for the stranger to introduce themselves.” Mira’s tone remained quiet, but the familiar edge had returned to it. Aria clung to that small sign of normality. “Then?” “Then we decide whether to keep moving or leave the path.” Aria glanced toward the trees. The undergrowth was thick on either side. Thorny vines wound between the trunks, and dead branches lay tangled beneath the leaves. Leaving the path might help them disappear from view, but it could also slow them down, make noise, or force them into ground they could not cross safely in the dark. They had no idea how far the planned route extended or how close they were

They were no longer trying to catch them together. The guards were dividing the forest between them, cutting off the paths that might lead toward the boundary. She pushed harder, her bag bouncing against her hip. A branch struck her cheek. She barely felt it. Another caught in her hair and pulled sharply at her scalp before she tore free, leaving several strands caught among the twigs. She heard Mira again, farther away this time. “Aria, keep going!” Aria turned her head toward the sound. Through the trees, she caught a glimpse of movement: Mira’s cloak, a flash of pale fabric beneath it, then the dark shape of a guard rushing after her. “Mira!” “Don’t stop!” The command came strained and breathless, but Mira was still running. Aria tried to change direction. A guard emerged between two trunks ahead of her, forcing her to veer sharply to the right. She stumbled down a shallow slope, slid on loose earth, and struck the ground with one knee. Pain flashed up her leg. She caught

Kael and Aria stood facing each other in the clearing. Neither moved. The distance between them was only a few paces, yet neither wolf seemed willing to be the first to cross it. Kael stood with his powerful body angled toward Aria, his paws firmly planted against the earth. Across from him, Aria held her ground, her head lowered slightly and her lips drawn back from her teeth. A warning growl rumbled through her chest. She had attacked him only moments earlier, throwing herself at him to force him away from Mira. She had not hesitated when she saw her friend trapped beneath his jaws, and she had not stopped to consider what striking the Alpha of Blackthorn might mean. Now she was facing him directly. Her mate. The man she had tried to escape. The wolf inside Kael had gone still. His eyes remained fixed on Aria, following the smallest movements of her body. He watched her ears shift toward him, noticed the tension in her shoulders, and saw how deliberately she kept herself pos