Chapter 66 066

Chapter 66 066
Natasha

"We could go to Romania."

Mikhail spread a map across the small table in the abandoned cabin we found deep in the territory. It was our secret meeting place, far from any pack patrols.

"There's a community of wolves who have left their packs there. They don't ask questions and they don't report to the major alphas. We could disappear there."

I studied the map, my heart racing. This was real. We were actually doing this.

"How far?"

"Two days if we drive straight through. Less if we fly, but that's riskier. More cameras and more records," His finger traced a route.

"We take my truck and use back roads mostly. I've got money saved, enough to get us there and keep us afloat for a few months while we figure things out."

"And after Romania?"

"Then we see," He looked up at me. "Maybe we stay. Maybe we move again. The point is we'll be together and free."

Free. The word felt foreign. I had never been free. Not really. I was always bound by pack hierarchy, by my position as Dimitri’s sister and by the rules and expectations that came with it.

"What about your position? Your future?"

His jaw tightened. "That future died the moment I fell in love with you."

"Mikhail."

"I mean it," He reached across the table, taking my hand.

"I've thought about this from every angle. Yes, I'm giving up everything I was supposed to be. Everything I've trained for, but what's the point of being a pack leader if I'm miserable? If I'm mated to someone I don't love, spending every day wishing I was with you instead?"

I squeezed his fingers, my throat tight. "Dimitri will never forgive you."

"I know."

"The pack will think you're weak. A coward for running."

"Let them think what they want," His eyes were fierce. "I'd rather be called a coward and have you than be called a leader and lose you."

I stood, moving around the table to him. He pulled me onto his lap and I buried my face in his neck, breathing him in.

"I'm scared." I whispered.

"Me too," His arms tightened around me. "But I'm more scared of the alternative."

We sat like that for a long moment before returning to the planning, the reality of what we were about to do dawning on us.

"We leave in three days," Mikhail said. "While everyone's distracted with preparations."

Three days. My stomach twisted.

"I'll need to pack," I said. "But I can't take much without someone noticing."

"Just the essentials. We'll buy what we need once we're settled," He pulled out a burner phone. "Take this. Only use it to contact me. Don't tell anyone, not even Mary."

"She already knows about us."

"She knows we're sleeping together. That's different from knowing we're running," His expression was grim. "The fewer people who know, the better. Less chance of someone warning Dimitri."

He was right, but the thought of leaving without saying goodbye to Mary made my chest ache.

Over the next three days, I packed in secret. A few clothes stuffed in the bottom of my hamper. My mother's necklace. The only thing I had left of her. Some photos. Money I had saved from my allowance.

Everything else would stay behind. My books. My favorite blanket. The life I built here, small as it was.

I tried not to think about it too much. About never seeing the pack house again, never walking these halls, never sitting in the garden which was my favorite place.

This had been my home for years, and in three days, it would be nothing but a memory.

On the final night, I went to Mikhail’s room.
He was waiting when I slipped through his door, locking it behind me. For a moment we just stared at each other, the weight of everything unsaid hanging between us.

"Last time in this room." He finally said.

I looked around, at his bed where we had stolen so many forbidden moments, at the window where he had watched for me, at the walls that had witnessed our secret.

"I'm going to miss it," I admitted. "Is that crazy?"

"No," He crossed to me, pulling me close. "I'll miss it too. For all the wrong reasons this place represents, it's also where I fell in love with you."

He kissed me then and I melted into him, my hands sliding under his shirt to feel his skin.

"Make love to me," I whispered. "One last time here, so I can remember this room as ours."

Mikhail lifted me easily, carrying me to his bed and laying me down gently. He undressed me slowly and reverently, like he was unwrapping something precious.

When I was bare beneath him, he just looked at me for a long moment.

"You're so beautiful," He murmured. "How did I get so lucky?"

"We're running away from everything we've ever known. That's not being lucky."

"It is if I get to keep you," He stripped off his own clothes and settled over me, his weight familiar and perfect. "That's all the luck I need."

When he entered me, it was slow and gentle. It felt like goodbye and hello at the same time.

"I love you," He breathed, moving inside me carefully "Whatever happens out there, wherever we end up, I love you."

"I love you," I pulled him down for a kiss, wrapping my legs around his waist. "I'm terrified and I'm sure this is insane, but I love you."

He made love to me like we had all the time in the world, his hands mapping every curve, his mouth tasting every inch of skin like he was memorizing me or maybe saying goodbye to this version of us.

Tomorrow we would be something new. We would be fugitives and exiles but we would be free.

"Tell me it's going to be okay," I said, my fingers tracing his face. "Tell me we're not making the biggest mistake of our lives."

"I can't promise it'll be easy," He caught my hand, kissing my palm. "I can't promise we won't struggle or have regrets or moments where we wonder if we should have stayed."

"That's not very reassuring."

"But I can promise you won't face it alone," His hips rolled, hitting that perfect spot that made me gasp. "I can promise that wherever we go, whatever we do, I'll be right there with you. We'll figure it out together."

He shifted his angle and I moaned, my back arching. He knew my body so well now, knew exactly how to touch me, how to move and how to make me fall apart.

"That's it, baby," He murmured, his hand sliding between us to where we were joined. "Let me feel you."

The orgasm built slowly, a tide rising instead of a wave crashing. When it finally broke, it was gentle and devastating at once, pleasure rolling through me in long pulses while I clung to him.

He followed soon after, his face buried in my neck, my name a groan on his lips. We stayed locked together, neither of us wanting to move and break the spell.

"Three days," He finally said. "Then we're gone."

"Three days," I turned my head to look around his room one last time. "And this is all just a memory."

"A good memory though," He kissed my shoulder. "The place where everything started."

We made love twice more that night, each time tender and emotional and laced with goodbye.

Between rounds we talked in whispers about Romania, about our plans and about the future we would build together.

"What if Dimitri sends people after us?" I asked as dawn started creeping through his window.

"He will. At first," Mikhail's fingers traced patterns on my bare back. "But eventually he'll have to give up, focus on the pack. Life will go on without us."

"And we'll just disappear."

"We'll start over," He tilted my chin up to meet his eyes. "New names if we need them. New lives. It won't be what we expected, but it'll be ours."

"Ours." I repeated, testing how that felt.

It felt like hope. I left before the house woke, slipping back to my room like a ghost. In three days I would leave for real, and this time I wouldn't come back.

Three days until we ran. Until everything changed.

I looked around my small room, at the bed I had slept in since childhood. All of it was about to become the past.