Chapter 5 A KILL?
The wolf came back again.
His breath fogged the window.
Mia didn’t move. Couldn’t. Her hand was on the lock. Knuckles white. The other pressed to her chest, to the ring box still crushed there.
He was huge.
Not wolf-huge. Monster-huge. Shoulders like a bear. Fur black as the chopper that wasn’t there anymore. As the penthouse that wasn’t there anymore. Gold eyes that weren’t human, weren’t animal. Were him.
Alex.
“A?” she whispered. The glass was cold. Her voice shook.
The wolf tilted his head. Same way Alex did when she said something stupid and brave.
Then he opened his mouth.
Not a snarl. Not a howl.
Teeth. Too many teeth. Too sharp. Lining jaws that could snap her spine.
She flinched.
He went still.
And then — whined.
A low, broken sound that vibrated through the glass, through the floor, through her ribs. Apology. Hurt. Don’t be afraid of me.
Tears hit her cheeks before she felt them. “I’m not,” she lied. “I’m not scared of you.”
Liar. She was terrified. Of him. Of the way her body wasn’t. Of the heat still sitting low in her stomach from his words: Bite you and drag you to our den and not let you out until you’re pregnant.
God help her, part of her wanted that.
The wolf sat. Like a dog. Like a 200-pound myth with claws that scored the stone porch. He laid his head on his paws. Watching her. Waiting.
Guarding.
Mia sank to the floor. Back to the wall. Knees to her chest. The window was between them. Three inches of glass and a world of what the hell is my life.
She must have dozed.
Because the next thing she knew, sun was bleeding through the trees. Gold and green and too normal for the night they’d had.
The wolf was gone.
In his place: a man.
Naked. On his knees in the dew-wet grass. Head bowed. Back to her. Shoulders shaking. Human shoulders. Human skin. Covered in scars she’d never seen. Old ones. Bullet ones. Claw ones.
Alex.
He didn’t turn. Didn’t have to. “You didn’t sleep,” he said. Voice raw. Human again. Mostly. “I could hear your heart all night. Like a rabbit.”
“I could hear yours,” she said. “Like a drum. Too slow. Too loud.”
He huffed. Might have been a laugh. Might have been pain. “Go back to sleep, Mia. I’m… decent. I think.”
She stood. Legs numb. She unlocked the door. One bolt. Then another. Then the last.
The morning air hit her. Pine. Cedar. Blood. He smelled like all three.
He still didn’t turn. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t look at me. Not like this. Not after—”
She stepped onto the porch. Barefoot. Gravel bit her soles. She didn’t care.
He was filthy. Dirt. Ash. Dried blood flaked on his ribs. On his thighs. His hands were human again, but his nails were still too dark, too thick. Half-shifted. Half-him.
“Alex.”
“Please.”
She knelt. The gravel hurt. Good. Pain was real. This was real. “Look at me.”
Slow. Like it cost him. He lifted his head.
His eyes were black again. Human black. But ringed in gold. Fading. Not gone.
And full of shame.
“I meant it,” he said. “Every word last night. The wolf didn’t lie. I don’t lie. I want to bite you. I want to mark you. I want you so pregnant you can’t walk, so you can’t leave, so Ivan can’t take you.” His breath hitched. “And I hate myself for it. Because it’s not fair to you. Because you didn’t choose this.”
Mia swallowed. Mouth dry. Heart hammering. “You didn’t do it though.”
“Not yet.”
The air between them went electric. Dangerous. Honest.
She reached out. Her hand shook. Touched his jaw. Stubble. Blood. Heat.
He closed his eyes. Leaned into it. Like a starving man. “Mia.”
“Did you sleep?” she asked.
“No.”
“Did you run?”
“Until my paws bled.”
“Did it help?”
His eyes opened. Gold flared. Then banked. “No. Because you were still in there. Smelling like smoke and fear….. and mine.”
Mine.
The word landed between them. Heavy. Final.
She should move her hand. She didn’t. “You said your wolf is quiet when I touch you.”
“He is.”
“Is he quiet now?”
Alex made a sound. Half groan, half growl. He caught her wrist. Not hard. Not hurting. Just… holding. Like if he let go she’d vanish. “Yes. God, yes. You don’t know what you do to me…..To him.”
“Then I’ll keep touching you.”
His eyes snapped to hers. “Mia.” Warning. Pleading. “You don’t say that to a man like me. Not unless you mean it. Not unless you’re ready for what happens next.”
“What happens next?”
“I take you inside. I clean the blood off you. I feed you. I put you in my bed. And I don’t let you out for a week. Maybe a month. Maybe ever.”
Heat. Terror. Twins again.
“The debt,” she whispered. “The 30 days—”
“Fuck the debt.” It was vicious. Sudden. “Ivan blew up my building. He tried to kill you. The money doesn’t matter. The contract doesn’t matter. You’re not payment anymore. You’re—” He stopped. Swallowed. “You’re the only thing I can’t lose.”
The wind moved. Trees whispered. Somewhere, a bird had the nerve to sing.
Mia’s phone buzzed.
The burner. In her pocket. She’d forgotten it.
She pulled it out. 12% still. Still red. Still warning.
One text. Unknown number.
_You can run, little wife. But my wolves run faster. 29 days left. -I_
Ice. Down her spine. Into her gut.
Alex saw her face. Ripped the phone from her hand. Read it.
The gold came back. All of it. No black left.
He stood. Pulled her up with him. Against him. Naked, bloody, furious, _his_.
“He’s dead,” Alex said. To the phone. To the trees. To the goddamn mountain. “He’s dead, and he doesn’t know it yet.”
He looked at her. Wolf in a man’s face. “Pack a bag. We’re not staying here. Not anymore. Safe houses are compromised. We go to ground. Deep.”
“Where?”
“My territory. Where the old laws still mean something. Where my father’s pack still remembers who I am.” He cupped her face. Thumb on her chin. Right over where he’d wiped blood last night. “Where I can marry you properly. Bite you. Claim you. So Ivan’s wolves smell me on you from a mile away and _run_.”
Marry. Bite. Claim.
Thirty days.
Twenty-nine now.
Mia looked up at him. At the monster who held her hair when she threw up. At the man who ran all night so he wouldn’t hurt her.
At the Don who’d burn Manhattan to keep her.
“Okay,” she said.
It wasn’t yes to the bite. Not yet.
It was yes to _him_.
His eyes flared. Gold to white-hot. He bent. Forehead to hers. Breathed her in.
“Hold on to me, Mia,” he whispered. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Behind them, the woods moved.
Not wind.
Wolves.
Three of them. Grey. Huge. Not his. Not friendly.
Ivan’s.
They’d been tracked.
Alex didn’t move her. Didn’t hide her.
He stepped in front of her. Between her and death. Naked. Unarmed. Unafraid.
And smiled.
The same smile from the chopper. Not human.
“Good,” he said. “I needed to kill something.”