Chapter 17 The Price of Survival
KAEL'S POV
"Run!" I grabbed Aria's hand and yanked her toward the trees.
The dead car sat useless behind us. Headlights grew brighter—Cross's team was seconds away. Luna sprinted beside us, clutching the evidence folder like her life depended on it.
Because it did. All our lives depended on that folder.
"They're too fast!" Aria gasped. "We can't outrun cars!"
She was right. The enhanced serum made me stronger, but not superhuman enough to outpace vehicles. My mind raced through options. None of them were good.
Then Luna grabbed my arm, pointing deeper into the forest. "The river! Half a mile north! They can't follow us through water!"
We crashed through undergrowth. Branches tore at our clothes and skin. Behind us, car doors slammed. Voices shouted orders. Flashlight beams cut through the dawn shadows like hunting spotlights.
"There! In the trees!"
"Don't let them reach the river!"
Gunshots cracked through the air. A bullet hit a tree next to my head, spraying bark in my face. I pushed Aria ahead of me, using my body as a shield. If they were going to shoot someone, it would be me. Not her.
The mate bond between us burned hotter with every step. My Alpha instincts screamed to protect her, to turn and fight, to destroy anything that threatened my mate. The serum amplified those feelings until they nearly overwhelmed my common sense.
"Kael, you're growling," Aria said, glancing back at me with worried eyes.
I was. A deep, rumbling sound I couldn't control. The predator inside me wanted blood.
"Keep running," I managed through clenched teeth. "I'm fine."
I wasn't fine. The serum was changing me faster now. Making me more aggressive. More violent. I could feel humanity slipping away like sand through my fingers.
We burst through the last line of trees. The river stretched before us—wide, dark, and moving fast with spring melt. Too fast. Too dangerous.
"We have to swim across!" Luna said.
"That current will kill us," I argued. "It's too strong—"
"Then we die trying instead of dying as Cross's prisoners!" Luna didn't wait for agreement. She jumped into the water, the evidence folder held above her head, and let the current take her.
Aria looked at me. Her gray-green eyes held a question: Do you trust me?
I grabbed her hand. "Together."
We jumped.
The freezing water hit like a punch. The current grabbed us immediately, dragging us downstream faster than I could process. I kept Aria's hand locked in mine, refusing to let go even as the river tried to tear us apart.
Something hit my leg—a rock or branch. Pain exploded through my shin. Blood clouded the water around me. The serum-enhanced healing would fix it, but right now it hurt like fire.
"Kael!" Aria's head went under. The current pulled her down.
I dove after her, my enhanced vision barely cutting through the murky water. There—her hand reaching up. I caught it and hauled her to the surface. She coughed and sputtered, gasping for air.
"I've got you," I said, kicking hard to keep us both afloat. "Don't let go!"
"Wasn't planning on it!"
Behind us, Cross's guards reached the riverbank. They raised their weapons but didn't shoot. Too risky—they might hit the water instead of us, and Cross wanted us alive for his experiments.
The current swept us around a bend. The guards disappeared from view.
We floated for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Finally, the current slowed enough that we could swim for the far shore. Luna was already there, collapsed on the muddy bank, the evidence folder miraculously still dry in its waterproof sleeve.
Aria and I dragged ourselves onto land. We lay there, breathing hard, shaking from cold and adrenaline.
"Everyone alive?" Luna asked.
"Barely," Aria said.
I sat up, checking the gash on my leg. Already healing—the wound closing before my eyes. Another reminder of what I was becoming. Something not entirely human anymore.
Aria noticed me staring at my leg. "Does it hurt?"
"Not as much as it should." I met her eyes. "That's the problem. The serum is making me feel less. Pain, fear, doubt—it's all getting quieter. Soon I won't feel anything at all."
"That's not true." Aria reached out and touched my face. The mate bond flared between us, electric and undeniable. "You feel this. I know you do."
I did. God, I felt it so strongly it hurt worse than any bullet wound. Every time Aria looked at me, every time she touched me, the bond pulled tighter. Demanding I claim her. Make her mine. Complete the connection that Cross had tried to force between us.
But she was Asher's sister. His twin. His family. And I'd failed to protect him. Failed to save him from becoming a mindless weapon.
I didn't deserve to feel anything for Aria except guilt.
"We should move," I said, pulling away from her touch. "Cross will send teams to search both sides of the river. We need distance."
Hurt flashed across Aria's face, but she nodded.
Luna checked her phone. "No signal. We're in the middle of nowhere. But there's a town about ten miles east. We can get there by afternoon if we walk."
"Then let's walk." I stood up, ignoring how my body screamed for rest.
We walked in silence. The forest was thick here, wild and untouched. No trails. No signs of human presence. Just trees and rocks and the occasional bird call.
After an hour, Luna pulled ahead, scouting. That left Aria and me alone.
"You're avoiding me," Aria said quietly. "Ever since the facility. Ever since the mate bond fully activated. Why?"
"I'm not avoiding—"
"Liar." She stopped walking and grabbed my arm, forcing me to face her. "I can feel it through the bond. You're pulling away. Shutting me out. And I don't understand why. I thought we were in this together."
"We are."
"Then talk to me!" Her voice cracked. "I just lost my brother again. I'm scared and alone and the only thing keeping me sane is this bond between us. But you're treating it like a disease. Like something you need to cure."
"Because it is!" The words exploded out of me. "Don't you understand? The bond isn't real, Aria. It's just biology. Chemicals and instincts. Cross created it by giving me that serum. He engineered it so I'd bond with you—so he could breed perfect enhanced soldiers. Every time I want to touch you, every time I want to—" I stopped, breathing hard. "It's not real. It's programming. Just like what they did to Asher."
Aria stared at me. Then she laughed—sharp and bitter. "You think the bond is fake? That what we feel is just the serum?"
"What else could it be?"
"I don't know, maybe actual feelings?" She stepped closer. "I've been feeling this pull toward you since the first day I moved into your room. Before you got the serum. Before any of this happened. When I still thought you might be my brother's killer, I still couldn't stop thinking about you. That's not programming, Kael. That's just... us."
Her words hit me like a physical blow. "That's impossible."
"Why? Because you don't think you deserve it?" Aria's eyes saw too much. "Because you couldn't save Asher, you don't deserve to care about anyone else? That's garbage, Kael. Asher wouldn't want—"
"Asher is a weapon now!" I shouted. "Because I wasn't strong enough to protect him! Because I trusted Cross when I should have known better! Because I'm so damaged from losing my sister that I can't save anyone!"
The confession hung between us. Raw and ugly and true.
Aria's expression softened. "You didn't fail Asher. Cross did. The system did. Not you."
"Then why does it feel like I failed?"
"Because you loved him. Because you cared. And caring about people means living with the fear that you'll lose them." She took my hand. "But shutting everyone out doesn't protect you from loss. It just makes you alone when the loss happens anyway."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to push her away again. But I was so tired of fighting. Fighting the serum. Fighting my feelings. Fighting the bond that connected us.
"I don't know how to do this," I admitted. "How to care about someone without destroying them."
"Then we'll figure it out together." Aria squeezed my hand. "That's what partners do."
Partners. The word settled something inside me. Not mates—that was too loaded, too complicated. But partners. People who fought beside each other. Who trusted each other.
I could do that.
Luna's scream shattered the moment.
We ran toward the sound, breaking through trees into a small clearing. Luna stood frozen, staring at something on the ground.
A body.
No—not just any body. A guard's body. From Cross's facility. Fresh blood pooled around him. His throat had been torn out by something with claws.
"We need to leave," I said immediately. "Now."
"Too late," a familiar voice said from behind us.
We spun around.
Asher stepped out of the shadows. But not the blank, emotionless Asher from the facility. This Asher smiled with all his teeth showing. Predatory. Hungry. His eyes glowed with the same enhanced shine as mine.
And he wasn't alone.
Five more enhanced subjects emerged from the trees. All of them moving with perfect synchronization. All of them staring at us like wolves staring at prey.
"Hello, sister," Asher said. "Professor Cross sends his regards. And his new orders." His smile widened. "We're bringing you home."