Chapter 46 An Oath
Maddox ran.
His paws hit the ground in a rhythm that should have been soothing, the familiar cadence of wolf form, of letting instinct take over and the human world fall away. But there was no peace in it tonight. No escape.
He ran through backyards and jumped fences, crashed through bushes, and startled sleeping dogs that barked frantically at the massive wolf tearing through their territory. He didn't care nor did he slow down. He just kept running like he could outpace what had just happened if he moved fast enough.
But he couldn't outrun the image burned into his mind.
Grace's face. Her eyes were wide with shock and something that looked too much like fear. The way she'd stepped back when he'd turned to look at her, that unconscious retreat that spoke louder than any words.
She'd been afraid of him.
Grace, who'd known him since they were little. Grace, who'd trusted him with everything. Grace, who'd let him hold her just nights ago, who'd whispered his name in the darkness, who'd looked at him like he was her whole world.
She had told him she loved him but now, she’d looked at him like he was a monster.
The thought made Maddox want to howl, to throw his head back and let out all the pain and confusion along with self-hatred in one long cry. But he kept it locked inside, kept running, kept trying to escape the look in her eyes.
‘She saw what you really are,’ a voice in his head whispered. ‘Not the boy she grew up with. Not her best friend. Just a beast with blood on its fur and murder in its eyes.’
Maddox had known this day would come eventually, he’d known that keeping his wolf nature secret from Grace would only work for so long. He had planned how he'd tell her, how he'd ease her into the truth and make her understand that he was still the same person she'd always known.
He'd never imagined it would happen like this. With his uncle dead on the floor, Enzo's blood on his teeth, and Grace walking in to find him mid-attack like some kind of savage animal.
Of course, she'd been scared. Of course, she'd stepped back. What else was she supposed to do when confronted with the reality of what he was?
Maddox's wolf form stumbled, his coordination faltering as human thoughts interfered with animal instinct. He forced himself to focus and let the wolf take control fully, to stop thinking and just run.
But even the wolf couldn't escape the grief.
Uncle Matteo was dead.
The reality of it kept hitting Maddox in waves, each one threatening to drag him under. The man who'd taken him in when he was just a little boy with nowhere else to go. Who had taught him how to control his shifts, how to live as both human and wolf, how to survive in a world that would kill him if it knew what he was.
The only family Maddox had left.
Gone.
Murdered in his own home with his chest torn open and his blood soaking into the floor.
And Maddox hadn't been there to protect him, he hadn't been there when his uncle needed him most. Rather, he’d been off avoiding Grace and feeling sorry for himself while someone broke into their home and killed the man who'd raised him.
‘Some protector you are, the voice in Maddox's head sneered. Some warrior. Can't even keep your own people safe.’
Maddox pushed himself harder, his muscles burning with exertion. The forest was thicker here, the trees closer together, and he had to dodge and weave to avoid crashing into them.
He didn't know where he was going. Didn't have a destination in mind, he just knew he needed to get away from that house, from the sirens and the blood and Grace's frightened eyes.
Would he ever be able to face her again?
The question made Maddox's chest ache in a way that had nothing to do with physical pain. Grace had looked at him like she didn't know him, like he was a stranger wearing her best friend's face.
Maybe he was. Maybe the Maddox she'd known had never really existed. Maybe it had always been a mask, a performance, a lie he'd told so well he'd almost believed it himself.
But underneath was always the wolf. The predator. The thing that belonged in forests and shadows, not in houses and schools and normal human lives.
Grace deserved better than that. She deserved better than him.
The thought should have brought resignation. Acceptance. Instead, it just made the ache worse.
Because Maddox loved her, he had loved her for so long it felt like part of who he was, woven into his DNA alongside the wolf genes. And for one brief, perfect night, he'd let himself believe she might love him back.
Turned out it had all been the heat talking. Biology overriding common sense. And now that Grace had seen what he really was, now that the illusion was shattered, there was no going back.
She'd never look at him the same way again.
Maddox's thoughts shifted, darkening as a different emotion began to override the grief and self-pity.
Rage.
Pure, hot rage that burned away everything else in its path.
Enzo had done this.
Maddox had seen it with his own eyes. Had walked into his home to find Enzo standing over his uncle's body with his hand literally inside Matteo's chest. He had smelled Enzo's scent all over the scene, mixed with blood and death.
Enzo claimed it had been a misunderstanding.
‘Lies.’
All lies from a liar's mouth.
The Torres family had always been liars. They’ve always been manipulators who smiled to your face while plotting your destruction behind closed doors. They were everything wrong with pack politics, with the hierarchy that put power and bloodlines above loyalty and honor.
Maddox's wolf snarled at the thought of them. At the memory of what they'd done to his mother. The wolf who'd given birth to him and then been cast out by her pack for the crime of loving someone they deemed unworthy.
The Torres pack had done that. Had taken a strong, proud wolf and broken her systematically until there was nothing left but shame and grief. Had driven her to desperation, to choices that had ultimately killed her.
The pack didn't care about love. Only about bloodlines and power and maintaining the precious Torres legacy.
When Maddox's mother died, the pack hadn't even claimed her body. They refused to take in a bastard child with diluted blood and kicked a grieving little boy out into the cold and told him to figure out survival on his own.
Uncle Matteo had found him three days later, half-starved and nearly feral, and took him in without question, without caring about bloodlines or pack politics or any of it. He had just seen a child who needed help and provided it.
For years, Matteo had been Maddox's family. His only family. The one person in the world who'd never asked for anything in return, who'd never made Maddox feel like he was less than because of circumstances beyond his control.
And now Matteo was dead.
Killed by a Torres.
By Enzo. Lorenzo Torres. Son of the current Alpha and heir to the pack that had destroyed Maddox's mother and cast him out like garbage.
Maddox's half-brother.
The word tasted like poison in Maddox's mind. They shared a father, though the Torres family had worked hard to bury that particular scandal, to pretend Maddox had never existed.
But Maddox knew. His mother had told him before she died, had wanted him to understand why the pack hated him so much. Had explained that his father was Lorenzo's father too, that they were brothers by blood even if the Torres family would never acknowledge it.
Not that it mattered now. Blood didn't make you family. Matteo had proven that. Family was the people who chose you, who stood by you, who loved you despite your flaws and failures.
And Enzo had murdered the only family Maddox had left.
The rage crystallized into something cold and hard and sharp. Into purpose.
Maddox was going to make Enzo pay.
He was going to kill him slowly and painfully, he would make sure he suffered the way Matteo must have suffered. And was going to destroy everything Enzo loved just the way Enzo had destroyed Maddox's world.
And if the rest of the Torres family got in the way, if they tried to protect their precious heir, then Maddox would kill them too. Would burn the whole pack to the ground if that's what it took to balance the scales.
Blood must have blood. That was pack law, older than memory, carved into the bones of every wolf who'd ever lived.
Enzo had spilled Matteo's blood. Now Maddox would spill his in return.
The vow settled over Maddox like a cloak, heavy and absolute. This was his purpose now. This was what he existed for. Revenge for the man who'd saved his life and raised him and loved him like a son.
Maddox's running had slowed without him realizing it. His paws moved on autopilot while his mind churned with dark thoughts, with plans for vengeance, with visions of what he'd do when he finally caught up with Enzo again.
Next time there would be no interruptions. No Grace walking in to stop him. No police sirens to make him flee. Just Maddox and Enzo and the settling of debts written in blood.
Maddox found himself in a small clearing, moonlight filtering through the canopy above to paint everything in shades of silver and shadow. He didn't recognize this part of the forest, had run farther than he'd intended in his blind flight.
But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except the vow he was about to make.
Maddox shifted back to human form, the transformation slower this time. His bones cracked and reformed, his fur receding into pale skin. Within moments he stood naked in the clearing, the night air cold against his sweat-slicked body.
He should have been freezing. Should have been shivering from exposure and exhaustion. But the rage burning in his chest kept him warm, kept him focused.
Maddox walked to the nearest tree, an old oak with roots that dug deep into the earth. He knelt before it, his knees pressing into dirt and fallen leaves.
Then he reached down and scooped up two fingers' worth of soil. Rich, dark earth that smelled of decay and new growth, of endings and beginnings.
With deliberate slowness, Maddox brought his hand to his face. He dragged the dirt across his right cheek, leaving a dark streak from cheekbone to jaw. Then he did the same on the left, creating matching marks.
Tears were streaming down Maddox's face, cutting clean tracks through the dirt. He didn't try to stop them. Didn't try to maintain any pretense of strength or control.
This was grief in its purest form. This was love transformed into rage transformed into purpose.
"I swear it," Maddox said aloud, his voice rough and broken. "By earth and blood and bone, I swear it."
The words felt heavy on his tongue, weighted with significance that went beyond their literal meaning. This was magic of a different kind, older than spells or charms. The magic of intent, of will made manifest.
"I will kill Lorenzo Torres," Maddox continued, each word deliberate and clear. "I will make him pay for what he's done. I will have my revenge for Uncle Matteo, for my mother, for every wound the Torres family has ever inflicted."
The wind picked up, rustling through the leaves above. To Maddox's heightened senses, it sounded almost like voices. The forest witnessed his oath and the spirits of wolves past acknowledged his vow.
"Blood must have blood," Maddox whispered. "And I will be the one to collect."
He stayed kneeling there for a long time, tears still streaming down his face to mix with the dirt on his cheeks. The rage and grief and determination swirled together inside him until he couldn't tell where one ended and another began.
All that remained was the certainty of his purpose.
Lorenzo Torres had to die.
And Maddox would be the one to kill him.
His half-brother. His enemy. The murderer of the only father figure Maddox had ever truly known.
Maddox rose slowly to his feet, his body aching from the night's exertions but his mind clear for the first time since he'd walked into that blood-soaked living room.
He looked up at the moon through the canopy, full and bright and indifferent to the drama playing out below. The moon had witnessed countless oaths over the centuries. Had seen warriors rise and fall, had watched vengeance play out in blood and screaming.
This was just one more story in an endless cycle. One more wolf swearing revenge on another. One more blood debt waiting to be paid.
But to Maddox, it was everything.
The golden son of the Torres pack. The Alpha's heir. Grace's first lover, though that thought made Maddox's jaw clench with jealousy he had no right to feel. Lorenzo Torres would have to die.
“I’m coming for you, brother,” Maddox said quietly to the night.