All Chapters of ROGUE BLOOD: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: MIAI’m standing outside the coffee place with Tasha, waiting for her drink because they messed it up again, and she is acting like this is the worst thing that has ever happened to her. I’m half listening and half scrolling on my phone.She’s talking about her ex. Again.“And then he had the nerve to like my picture,” she says, rolling her eyes hard. “Three months later. Like I wouldn’t notice.”I snort. “They always do that. It’s like a rite of passage.”“Right,” she says. “Like I’m supposed to be wow, destiny.”I’m about to look back down at my phone when someone passes too close. My body reacts before my brain catches up.And then I see him.Across the street.Eli.Not rushing. Not confused. Not looking around like he doesn’t belong.Just standing there.Like he belongs.Like he didn’t tell me he was leaving.My chest tightens so fast it actually hurts. My first thought is no. My second is what the hell is he doing here. My third is oh. So you lied to me.“Mia,” Tasha says. “

POV: MIA I feel it. Something is wrong before I know what is wrong and it hits me so hard I almost knock my drink over.I am sitting at an outdoor table with Jessa and Leo and Tom, and we are supposed to be having a normal afternoon, like fries in the middle and phones out and Jessa talking too loud about her coworker who keeps flirting with customers for tips.“And then he winked at her,” Jessa says, laughing. “Like full wink. With finger guns.”“That is a crime,” Leo says. “That man should be stopped.”Tom snorts. “I would tip him just to make him stop.”I try to laugh but my chest tightens and my back straightens and my foot slides back under my chair like I am about to stand or run or fight, and I do not even know why.Jessa stops mid laugh. “Mia.”“I’m fine,” I say, too quick.Leo squints at me. “No you are not.”Tom looks between us. “What did I miss?”“Nothing,” I say, and my eyes keep drifting past them to the sidewalk, to the street, to the people walking by with shopping ba

POV: ELISomething feels wrong before I can put a name to it, and it crawls up my spine while I am still pretending the day is normal.I am halfway down the street when my feet just stop.I don’t decide to stop. They just do.Someone almost walks straight into my back.“Dude,” a guy mutters, pissed.“Sorry,” I say automatically, stepping aside, but my eyes are already moving, already counting.Too many people not moving.Too many people doing nothing on purpose.A guy leaning on a light pole, phone in his hand, screen lighting up and going dark but his thumbs never move. A woman on a bench who keeps looking up every time I pass her line of sight. A car parked at the curb with the engine still running and no one getting out.My jaw tightens.Gus.Not here. Not standing in front of me. But close enough that the air feels tight, like I am breathing through cloth.I start walking again and I keep my pace normal because rushing looks guilty and slowing down looks scared, and I am not givin

POV: ARACHNESilence stops being safe on the third day.I know it the second I hear Mia stop pacing.She has been walking the house nonstop since she woke up, not loud, not angry, just restless, like an animal that knows the room is too small but does not know where the door is. She touches the walls like they might shift. She flinches at sounds that never used to bother her. She laughs at the wrong moments and then freezes like she regrets making noise at all.Now she is sitting on the couch.Still.Knees pulled up. Arms wrapped tight around herself. Staring at nothing.That scares me more than her yelling ever did.“Mia,” I say, and I hate how calm my voice sounds because my chest feels tight, like it is folding in on itself.She looks at me slowly, like even turning her head takes effort.“You are going to tell me now,” she says. “Or I am going to lose my mind.”I close the door beh

POV: ELISomething flashes wrong before I even open my eyes.I have been feeling this way ever since Arachne magicked me out of her house that day.It is not loud. It is not dramatic. It is worse than that.It is quiet.Too quiet.The constant pull I live with, the background noise that never shuts up, the steady knowing of where Mia is in relation to me, it just drops out. All at once. Like a limb falling asleep without warning. Like part of me got cut off and forgot to scream.I sit up in bed so fast my head spins.My wolf slams against my ribs, confused and sharp.What happened.I press my hand to my chest and breathe in through my nose, slow, controlled, because panic never fixes anything, and because I am Alpha, and because I am supposed to have control even when my insides are a mess.“She’s still there,” I mutter under my breath. “She has to be.”My wolf does not answer the way it usually does.It circles. Uneasy. Restless.Something shifted.Not snapped. Not broke.Shifted.An