Chapter 18
Kara
All three at once. A tidal wave of black ebony and tobacco, gunpowder and leather, mint and ozone, crashing over me like I'm drowning in them, suffocating in them, being buried alive in their combined presence.
Oh God. Oh fuck. No no no—
My body reacts instantly, betraying every thought in my head.
Pupils dilate so fast my vision blurs. Heart rate spikes so hard I can feel my pulse in my throat. Every nerve ending catches fire like someone poured gasoline on my skin and lit a match. The glands on my neck throb with sudden, aching heat that makes me want to cry and beg and submit—
And my wolf—
My wolf shoves forward so hard I actually stumble backward, catching myself against the counter with a gasp.
GO! RUN TO THEM! ACCEPT THE BOND! ACCEPT THE MARK! THEY'RE OURS OURS OURS—
"No—"
But she's not listening. She's pushing, pushing, trying to take control, trying to force me to turn around and run straight into their arms and bare my throat and let them mark me and claim me and—
I see Blake's hand across my face. The copper taste of blood.
I see Asher's eyes, cold as winter ice.
I see Cole laughing as I begged them to stop, begged them to see me as human—
I remember. I remember everything.
So instead of running toward them, I run away.
I bolt for the side door—the one that leads out to the front yard—and slam through it hard enough to rattle the glass in its frame.
Fuck them. Fuck the bond. Fuck this entire nightmare.
---
The cold hits like a physical blow.
Zero degrees. Maybe colder. The kind of cold that should drop me to my knees and freeze my lungs mid-breath.
But I barely feel it.
All I feel is my wolf, screaming at me, clawing at my insides, trying to turn me around and drag me back toward them.
WRONG DIRECTION! MATES ARE BEHIND US! GO BACK GO BACK GO BACK—
"Shut up!" I gasp out loud, my breath fogging in the air. "Just shut the fuck up!"
My legs keep moving forward. Through the yard. Toward the tree line.
Away from them.
And then my body starts to shift without permission.
Oh God. Not now. Please not now—
But it's already happening. Bones beginning to crack with sounds like gunshots. Spine starting to curve. Skin prickling with the promise of fur erupting through my pores.
No! Stop it!
I try to hold it back with every ounce of willpower I have, but it's like trying to stop a sneeze or hold back vomit. I can delay it for a few seconds, but it's coming whether I want it or not.
My thermal shirt tears at the shoulders with a sound like ripping fabric.
Move. Just move faster.
Behind me, the door slams open again.
"KARA!"
Blake's voice. Rough with panic and something that sounds almost like pain.
My wolf tries to stop running. Tries to turn around. That's our mate! He's calling us! We have to—
NO.
I force my legs to keep going, stumbling through the snow as my body wars with itself, half-human and half-wolf and entirely fucked.
"KARA, STOP!"
Alpha command. The words slam into me like a physical force, trying to lock my muscles in place and force me to obey.
But I'm shifting. My wolf is too close to the surface. The command slides off her like water off fur.
Fuck your Alpha command, I think savagely, even as my jeans split down the seams. Fuck all of you.
I collapse to my knees twenty yards from the tree line, my hands sinking into snow that burns like fire.
My jeans tear completely away. My shirt shreds into ribbons.
Please please please let me make it to the trees before—
But it's too late.
The shift takes me with brutal efficiency.
Bones crack and reform. Fur erupts across my skin in golden waves. My face elongates into a muzzle, jaw stretching, teeth sharpening.
And through it all, I can hear them shouting behind me. Three voices overlapping, frantic, commanding, pleading—
But I'm already running.
Four legs instead of two. Faster. Stronger. Free.
I hit the tree line at full speed and keep going, leaving behind strips of torn fabric and three Alphas standing in the snow.
Fuck them. Fuck the mate bond. Fuck fate.
I'm not theirs. I'll never be theirs.
---
Blake
"What the FUCK just happened?"
I'm standing in the front yard in my bare feet, snow soaking through my socks and burning my skin, watching the forest where Kara just disappeared.
She shifted. Mid-run. Without stripping first.
And she ran from us.
From us.
Like we're monsters. Like we're the enemy.
We are, some traitorous part of my brain whispers. We are monsters. We made her into this.
"Should we go after her?" Cole's voice is strained, his wolf clearly pushing him to chase, to hunt, to claim.
Every instinct in my body screams YES. Shift. Track. Catch. Claim. Make her understand she's OURS.
But Asher's hand lands on my shoulder, heavy with authority and finality.
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?" I round on him, my wolf snarling in my chest. "She's out there alone, barely twelve hours post-first-shift, in sub-zero temperatures, and you want us to just—"
"She's running FROM us, Blake." Asher's eyes are pure Alpha gold, blazing in the pre-dawn darkness. "She caught our scents and bolted. If we chase her right now, we'll only terrify her more. We'll prove every fear she has about us is justified."
"But—"
"He's right." Cole's voice is quiet. Broken. "Did you see her face? Right before she ran? She was terrified. Of us."
The words hit like a punch to the gut, knocking the air from my lungs.
Of us. She's terrified of us.
Behind us, Crystal appears in the doorway, her mouth hanging open in shock.
"What—what just—did she just—"
"Get inside," Asher orders, not looking at her. "Now."
"But the birthday boys, I thought we could—"
"I said GET. INSIDE."
The Alpha command in his voice makes Crystal flinch like she's been slapped. She scrambles back into the house without another word, her heels clicking frantically on the floor.
The three of us stand there in the snow, staring at the tree line where our mate disappeared, feeling the bond stretch and pull and scream at us to follow.
My wolf is going insane inside me. Chase her. Find her. Claim her. She's OURS.
"So what do we do?" I finally ask, my voice rough. "Just... wait?"
Asher is silent for a long moment, his jaw working.
"We wait," he says. "She'll have to come back eventually. It's below zero. She can't stay in wolf form forever."
"And when she comes back?"
"We give her space. We don't crowd her. We don't use Alpha command." Asher's jaw tightens. "We let her come to us on her own terms."
"That could take forever," I mutter.
"Then it takes forever." Cole's voice is soft but steady. "Because the alternative is chasing her down and forcing a bond she's not ready for. And that would destroy her. Destroy what's left of her."
Through the mind link, I feel what he's feeling. What we're all feeling.
Our mate is out there, alone and afraid and running from the three people who are supposed to protect her.
And it's our own fault.
Everything that's happening right now—her fear, her flight, her terror—we created this.
We did this to her.