Chapter 113 113
AIDAN
I didn’t feel the cold as we left. Only the burning.
The one that scorched me from the inside since I left her on that bed.
We ran in silence.
Emmanuel, in his wolf form, moved like lightning.
I kept pace beside him, dodging branches, roots, shadows. His paws made no sound on the earth, but mine did. I could feel the forest open for him and resist me. Because I was never part of that world. I never had been.
My breathing stayed steady, deep—even though my body still burned. Not just from the effort. Lois.
Her scent lingered on my skin. Her blood on my tongue.
My mouth ached. My neck ached where I’d kissed her. My chest ached from holding everything in.
She is my home, I thought.
Every step carried me farther from that home.
Emmanuel veered sharply right, and I followed without hesitation. We descended a slope, crossed a stream, climbed a path that seemed made only for him. He knew every inch.
I knew nothing.
Only the taste of Lois, her voice begging me to take care, her body trembling in my arms.
The forest changed. Branches grew taller. Leaves broader. Emmanuel paused for a second and looked at me with glowing golden eyes. Then he ran faster.
“Can you keep up?” his voice echoed in my mind.
I didn’t answer. I just smiled.
I leaped. Climbed a tree. Ran along the canopy, jumping from branch to branch. Adrenaline sliced through the air.
I dropped onto him from above. The wolf shook but didn’t stop. I clung to his back. His body was living rock—strong, brutal. I closed my eyes and let myself be carried.
The speed tore through me. Wind in my face, echo of branches, dampness in my mouth. I felt like I was flying.
But nothing pulled me away from the pain.
I’d been so close to her body barely an hour ago…
And now I didn’t know when I’d see her again.
We jumped a ravine. Emmanuel didn’t hesitate for a second. He landed perfectly. We kept going.
Up a hill.
Then across another stream.
We plunged into the water.
My body sank. I didn’t fight.
I stayed at the bottom. Suspended.
The water embraced me, calmed me.
For a moment, I heard nothing. Not my heart. Not his.
I pushed upward with a strong kick.
I surfaced.
Ran beside him again.
The forest shifted once more.
The stones grew darker. The roots shallower. And suddenly we passed between two narrow mountains.
A natural fissure that seemed to mark an invisible border.
On the other side, the air was dry. The sky covered in clouds.
The moon was barely a trace.
The ground turned sandy. A small desert, dotted with rocks and wind. Emmanuel stopped, growled low, then continued.
I followed—more silent than ever.
This place…
I’d never seen it on any map I knew.
I’d never imagined it.
“We have to be fast and quiet here,” his voice said in my head.
I nodded.
We ran.
The open terrain offered no shelter. We couldn’t stop.
My legs didn’t hurt, but my chest did.
Lois. Was she asleep? Awake? Crying?
Would she miss me as much as I already missed her?
Finally Emmanuel stopped. The wind blew hard, his silhouette sharp against the stones. His body shrank. Where the wolf had been, now stood Emmanuel: naked, panting, muscles taut.
He turned to me.
“There,” he pointed to distant dark mountains—like a row of old teeth. “Once you cross them, you’re out of wolf territory.”
“What’s beyond?”
“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I’ve never crossed. According to maps, there’s sea. About ten kilometers. I don’t know what’s on the other side. I don’t know how much sea there is. Or if there’s land at all. But it’s the only direction they won’t look for you first.”
I looked at him in silence.
“You could hide in the mountains for a few days, but if Enzo hunts you, that’s the first place he’ll check. You have to cross the sea, Aidan. Even if you don’t know what’s waiting.”
I laughed under my breath. Not mockery. Irony.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can. You don’t have a choice.”
I nodded.
“And you?”
“I’ll try to misdirect the search. Infiltrate. Lie if I have to. My father might stop, but Enzo… I don’t think so.”
Just hearing his name made my jaw clench.
Enzo.
He knows about our bond, but I don’t think he can use it against us if I’m not near. Still, I worry he’ll try to blackmail them with it to find me—or that Lois will be in danger because of him.
It terrifies me.
I swallowed. Took a step toward Emmanuel.
“Don’t let Enzo get near her.”
I said it without anger.
Just fear.
“That’s the only thing I ask. Protect her.”
“I will,” he answered without hesitation.
I believed him. We weren’t the same, but we were bound by her.
And that was enough.
I turned toward the mountains. The wind struck my face.
I didn’t know what lay beyond. Or if I’d survive.
But she had told me to think of her.
And I would.
Because she was my home. My only belonging. The only place I wanted to return to.
I started running.
The ground opened beneath my feet.
And the world began to end.
I didn’t know any other place. And though I was never a wolf, I grew up here—it was all I’d ever known. But the farther I went, the deeper into the unknown, the heavier the anguish settled in my chest.
Leaving her wasn’t easy, but staying meant death—and putting her in danger too.
I stopped for a second… just to look back.
Then I moved forward again.
A few kilometers later, the sea appeared before me.
Crossing it meant… stepping into the unknown.