Chapter Nineteen – The Hunt
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Thorne’s POV
The moment the SUV taillights vanished beyond the gates, the bond ripped like a cord yanked from my chest.
Elara.
My wolf roared, clawing for her, for our pup, the air itself buckling around me. The Great Hall still stank of fear and Ashthorne blood where my rage had already torn through. The pack cowered in the corners, heads bowed, too afraid to breathe. Even Alpha Marcus didn’t lift his eyes. Good. He had learned. Too late,
but he had learned.
“Where?” I thundered, the word splitting the silence. “Where did they go?”
No one dared answer.
Julian appeared at my side, steady as ever though his pulse raced beneath his calm mask. “Your Majesty-the Valemont convoy has split into three. Decoys. They’re playing you for a chase.”
My wolf surged, lips curling. “Decoys?”
“Yes. One north, one west, one cutting through the mountain pass.” His tone was crisp, efficient. “No way to know which holds Elara and the boy.”
The boy. My pup. My chest tore open at the thought of him pressed against her, his tiny heart racing as she spirited him away from me.
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“They dare run from me,” I growled, voice shredded raw. The gold in my eyes bled until the world sharpened into wolf-sight-every movement, every heartbeat in the hall magnified. “She dares take my son from me.”
Julian’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t flinch. “Shall I deploy the Blood Guard?”
“No.” My voice was a whip. “I’ll find her myself.”
The tether thrummed faintly-flickering in and out, like she was blocking me, holding me at a distance. My wolf snarled, snapping against the restraint. Every instinct screamed to hunt, to track, to claim.
I slammed a hand against the oak pillar, wood splintering beneath my palm. “Run, little wolf,” I hissed under my breath. “Run as far as you can. There’s nowhere in this world my wolf won’t find you.”
And then I was moving, the night ripping open around me as I shifted into the
chase.
Elara’s POV
The SUV jolted over a snow-packed ridge, headlights carving through the storm. Aeron’s small body was warm against me, his head tucked under my chin. I stroked his back even as my own heart hammered so loud I thought he might
hear it.
Beside me, Cassia kept her eyes sharp on the window, one hand braced on the seat, the other clutching the damn snack tote like it was holy scripture. Caius drove like a man possessed, knuckles white on the wheel. Alpha Darius and Luna Lyanna were ahead of us in the lead car, but this one-this was the one carrying me. Carrying Aeron.
“Mommy,” Aeron mumbled into my chest, voice muzzy with sleep. “Daddy not
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The words stabbed me. I swallowed hard. “Daddy’s… busy, sweetheart. We’re going somewhere safe.”
He blinked up at me, golden flecks in his eyes bright even in the dark. Thorne’s eyes. “Daddy find us,” he said matter-of-factly, like the sky was blue and Mister Dwagon liked cookies.
My chest cracked. Cassia swore softly.
“Don’t fill his head with “I started, but the words broke, jagged.
Cassia turned, her voice fierce but soft. “He’s not wrong, Elara. Kings don’t get left behind. And wolves don’t give up their pack.”
“I am his pack,” I whispered, clutching Aeron tighter. My voice shook with rage and fear and love all tangled together. “He’s mine. Mine.”
The SUV jolted again. Aeron giggled, oblivious, hugging Mister Dwagon. “Adventure!”
Caius muttered, “Adventure, he says, while we’re running from the most powerful wolf in the Territories.”
“Language,” Cassia snapped automatically.
The banter couldn’t hide the truth-I felt Thorne in my bones. Hunting. Chasing. The tether tugged faint and violent, even as I shoved it down, shielding with everything I had.
But still, I heard it. A whisper against my skin, fierce and unrelenting.
Mine.
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Chapter Nineteen The Hunt
I closed my eyes, pressing my lips to Aeron’s hair. “Not if I can help it,” I whispered back.
The storm swallowed us whole.
Snow lashed the windshield in furious sheets, wipers struggling to keep pace as the SUV barreled down the mountain road. The headlights barely cut through the white-out, and the wind howled like wolves hunting at our heels.
Aeron’s small body was strapped into his car seat behind me, Mister Dwagon clutched in one fist, thumb jammed into his mouth. His wide golden-flecked eyes reflected the dashboard lights, too awake, too alert. My son should have been asleep. Safe. But instead-
Instead, a knife had been aimed at him.
My stomach clenched, bile rising. I twisted in my seat just enough to see him, to make sure his chest rose and fell. Only when his little fingers flexed around the plush dragon did I let myself breathe.
“Faster,” I rasped, my hand gripping the door handle like a lifeline.
“I’m pushing it,” Caius shot back from the driver’s seat, his knuckles bone-white on the wheel. His voice was strained, clipped. “But the road’s iced. If
we skid-”
“Then don’t skid,” Cassia cut in from the back, her arms braced on either side of Aeron’s seat. Her tone was razor-sharp, but her hands trembled just slightly where they hovered protectively over him.
The SUV jolted as a gust slammed into us. My heart leapt into my throat.
“Goddess,” Luna Lyanna whispered, one hand clutching the armrest, the
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other stretched across the seat like she could shield us all. Her calm was fraying, but her voice stayed steady, steady enough for Aeron’s sake. “Eyes ahead, Caius. Trust your wolf.”
Caius bared his teeth, eyes flashing briefly silver in the dashboard glow. “I’ve got it.”
Behind us, through the swirling dark, headlights cut the storm
I whipped my head around. Another SUV. Not ours.
My wolf surged, claws scraping at my skin. “They’re following.”
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too close.
“Decoy’s doing its job,” Caius muttered, jaw tight. “But not all of them took the
bait.”
Something pinged against the rear window. Not snow. Not hail. Metal.
“Claws or blades,” Cassia spat. “They’re trying to disable us.”
Panic swelled like a tide. My wolf snarled inside me, pacing, furious. No one
no one – threatened my son.
Aeron blinked at the sudden noise, frowning. “Mommy mad?”
I twisted enough to meet his gaze, forcing my voice calm, even though every vein in my body pulsed with terror. “Not at you, sweetheart. Never at you.”
“Dwagon protect,” he declared solemnly, raising the battered plush like a tiny warrior. “Roarrr!”
Cassia barked out a laugh, fierce and shaky. “That’s right, pup. Roar at them.”
The SUV swerved again, the storm blinding, the hunters behind us gaining ground.
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“Hold on,” Caius growled, eyes flashing full wolf now. “We’re not breaking here. Not tonight.”
The storm screamed. The road twisted. And then-
Two sets of headlights appeared through the white-out ahead. Our second SUV-the decoy. It braked hard, fishtailing across the road to block the path.
The roar of engines behind us grew louder. Then blinding light. The pursuing SUV came into view, barreling straight toward us.
“Goddess,” Luna Lyanna breathed.
“Brace!” Caius barked.
Metal shrieked as the pursuers clipped the decoy at full speed. The sound was deafening. Tires exploded, glass shattered, a plume of snow and sparks erupted as both vehicles spun off into the storm.
Aeron yelped at the noise, clapping his hands over his ears. “Too loud!”
“Shh, baby, it’s okay, it’s okay,” I soothed, twisting in my seat. “We’re okay.”
The road ahead cleared-nothing but ice and storm now. The decoy had done its job.
“Go,” Luna Lyanna urged, her hand pressing into Caius’s shoulder. “Take us home.”
Caius’s jaw set, his grip tightening. “Hold on.”
The SUV surged forward, snow spraying behind us. No more headlights followed. Only the dark storm and the faint, desperate thread of hope that we had finally shaken them.
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I sagged against the seat, my body trembling with the release of fear. My
hand found Aeron’s small leg, squeezing, grounding myself in his warmth.
We weren’t safe. Not yet. But we had bought a narrow escape.
米米米
Elara’s POV
The silence after the crash was deafening.
Only the storm remained — wind clawing at the glass, tires humming over ice, the low growl of the engine as Caius drove us hard through the dark.
For the first time since the knife had flown, since the shadows lunged for my son, no headlights followed.
We had escaped. Barely.
I twisted in my seat, my throat tight. Aeron was wide-eyed but calm, as if the world hadn’t just tried to tear itself apart around him. His thumb crept back into his mouth, Mister Dwagon dangling by one wing from his hand.
My chest cracked open at the sight. My brave boy. Too brave.
“Mommy?” he whispered around his thumb. “Did we win?”
The question nearly undid me. I brushed his curls back with shaking fingers. “We did, baby. We won.”
Cassia slumped back, her red dress twisted around her legs, her hair wild from the chaos. She let out a laugh sharp, a little hysterical, but real. “Gods, Aeron, you’re tougher than all of us. Don’t you dare grow up to be boring.”
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He blinked at her, thumb popping free just long enough for him to say: “I grow big. Like Daddy.”
My heart lurched. Cassia’s grin faltered, her eyes darting to mine. Neither of
us spoke.
Luna Lyanna reached across the seat, laying her warm hand gently over Aeron’s small knee. “Big, yes. But for now, little wolf, you’re safe. That is enough.”
“Safe,” Aeron repeated, nodding gravely, as though he understood the weight of it. Then he yawned, sudden and wide, and sagged against his seatbelt, Dwagon squashed to his chest.
I stroked his hair until his eyes fluttered closed, his breaths deepening,
softening.
Cassia sighed, low and fierce. “I swear, Elara, if they ever touch him again—”
“They won’t,” Luna Lyanna said firmly, though her voice carried the tremor of prayer. “Not while Valemont still stands. Not while his family still breathes.”
Up front, Caius’s hands were still white on the wheel, his jaw a sharp line. His wolf simmered close to the surface, his shoulders tense with the fight not given. “One more mile of this road,” he muttered, “then we hit the stretch to the border. If the Goddess favors us, no one else is waiting.”
The SUV bumped over a patch of frozen ruts. My body swayed, catching against the seatbelt, but my eyes never left my son. Even asleep, his small fingers clutched tight at Dwagon, as if ready to defend himself again.
My wolf growled inside me, fierce and unrelenting. Whoever had dared raise claws against my pup would regret it.
We weren’t out of the woods yet. Not even close. But we had survived tonight.
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Aeron’s head lolled against the seat, lashes dark against his cheeks, Dwagon tucked stubbornly under his chin. His breaths evened out, soft and steady, untouched by the storm still howling outside.
I couldn’t look away. My hand stayed in his hair, smoothing it back again and again as though that could anchor me, as though touch alone could keep him tethered to me.
“They won’t touch him again,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.
The vow settled in my chest like iron.
Not the Ashthornes.
Not their allies.
Not even the King himself.
Let them come. I would burn the world before I let it steal my son.
The SUV carried us forward into the dark, into the storm, into whatever waited next.
And I held my boy, knowing that tonight we had won just beginning.
f
—
– but the war was only
I would kill anyone who tried to take him from me again. And if the Goddess was merciful, Valemont’s borders would hold.
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