Chapter 45: Shadows Don’t Lie

Chapter 45: Shadows Don’t Lie

Alex’s POV

The howl came again closer this time.
Low. Drawn out. Cold enough to crawl beneath the skin.

Ella stirred beside the dying fire, her eyes blinking open as if the sound had reached her dreams. For a second, she looked lost like she didn’t know where she was. Then her gaze found mine.

“Was that…”
“Yes,” I said, cutting her off. “Darius’s hounds.”

Her body went stiff. The firelight trembled across her face, painting her fear in orange and gold. I could smell it, that sharp scent of adrenaline and wolf panic and it made my own instincts claw to the surface.

“Pack your things,” I said, already moving. “We can’t stay here.”

She scrambled to her feet, clutching her cloak, the confusion in her eyes barely contained. “How did he find us?”

“He always finds what belongs to him.”

That made her stop. Her voice was small when she said, “I don’t belong to him.”

But I didn’t answer. Because even now, part of her still did, at least in Darius’s eyes. His handmaid. His property. His puppet. And the more I learned, the more the truth burned like acid in my veins.

I hadn’t wanted to believe it. I’d told myself she was complicit part of Darius’s plan, a spy, something dark in disguise. But she wasn’t.
She was just a girl trapped in someone else’s cruelty.

As we pushed through the trees, branches snapping underfoot, I finally said what I’d been holding back. “Why did you take her place, Ella?”

She flinched at her real name. It sounded foreign out here, too human.
“She made me,” she whispered. “Lyra. She didn’t want to go. She said the academy was a prison. That her father would never control her the way he did my kind. And I…”
Her voice broke. “I couldn’t say no. Not to her.”

“Because you were afraid,” I said quietly.

She nodded. “I thought… if I just went, if I stayed quiet, maybe it would end one day. Maybe I could come back.”

“You thought wrong.”

“I know.” She swallowed hard. “But I didn’t do it to deceive you, Alex. I never wanted to lie.”

The way she said my name; soft, pleading, almost broke me. I wanted to stay angry. I wanted to hate her for wearing that name, for making me believe she was Darius’s blood. But the truth was, I’d been blind because I wanted to be.

“You’re not her,” I said finally. “You never were.”

“No,” she whispered, her eyes glistening. “And now I don’t know who I am.”

The howl came again closer, followed by the snap of branches somewhere behind us.
My wolf rose instantly, muscles locking, instincts flaring. “Run.”

She didn’t question it. We ran through the forest, our breaths coming fast, our boots sinking into wet earth. The air smelled of rain and danger, of blood waiting to be spilled.
Darius was out there, I could feel it. His scent, faint but unmistakable, threaded through the wind.

We broke into a clearing, moonlight spilling across the ground. I turned, scanning the treeline, every nerve on edge.

“They’re here,” I said.

Ella pressed close to me, her fingers trembling as they brushed my sleeve. “Alex—”

“Stay behind me.”

The first wolf lunged from the shadows one of Darius’s sentinels, huge and dark, its eyes burning gold. I met it midair, claws out, the impact rattling through my bones. It yelped when I threw it aside, but another came, and another.

The forest erupted into chaos, teeth, claws, snarls, the metallic taste of blood on my tongue.
I tore through them, one by one, but there were too many. They weren’t here to kill me. They were here to slow me down.

Because Darius wanted her alive.

Ella screamed as a wolf lunged for her. I caught it by the neck, snapped it in one motion, then grabbed her arm. “We’re leaving now!”

We ran again, deeper into the woods, the sound of pursuit close behind. My lungs burned, my wolf fought to break free completely.
If he took control, I might lose her and I couldn’t risk that. Not tonight.

When we finally stopped, we were miles from the cave. The forest was quiet again, almost eerily so.
Ella collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. “He won’t stop, will he?”

“No,” I said, crouching beside her. “He never does.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, wide and wet. “Why? Why go through all this? What does he want with me?”

I hesitated. The truth was cruel, but lies would hurt worse.
“He wants to erase his mistake,” I said. “If people find out his daughter wasn’t really at the academy… if they find out he used a servant to deceive the council, it’ll ruin him.”

“So he’ll kill me to hide it,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

She looked down at her hands. It was shaking, dirty, blood-smeared. “I wish I’d refused her. I wish I’d been brave.”

“You were,” I said firmly. “You’re still standing, aren’t you?”

Her eyes flicked up to mine, and something passed between us; fragile but fierce, a connection neither of us wanted to name.

Then she said quietly, “Why do you care so much, Alex? You hated me.”

“I hated what I thought you were,” I said. “Not who you are.”

For a moment, she didn’t breathe. Then, slowly, she reached for my hand. Her fingers were cold and small, but when they touched mine, it felt like the only warm thing left in the forest.

“I don’t know how to stop being afraid,” she whispered.

“Then don’t,” I said. “Just stay alive.”

The forest wind howled again, carrying with it the faint echo of Darius’s voice, sharp and furious, somewhere in the distance.

Ella tensed. “He’s close.”

I looked toward the sound, every muscle ready for the coming storm. “Then let him come.”

Because this time, I wasn’t the boy who’d watched his parents die.
I was the man ready to end it and for the first time, I had something worth protecting.
Her.