"Where to, Boss?"
Asher's grin was bloody, roguish, and entirely too pleased with the situation. Shows how excited he was about what was going to happen.
"Out of the Grey Zone," Ravenna said.
Her voice was steadier than her hands. The adrenaline from the drone fight was still humming in her blood.
"They know the tunnels. They know the city. We need chaos to cover our escape, and then we need to vanish."
Emin scoffed. He shoved a dirty hand through his hair, smearing soot across his forehead.
"Chaos is your specialty, Hybrid. But ground is the Ironwood Wilds. I have resources. Sanctuary. Walls."
"No."
Ravenna cut him off. She met his furious gaze.
She felt the weight of his disapproval through the bond. But beneath it, she felt the flicker of his need to protect.
"We can't go there. Your sanctuary is known. Your rules are why we're being hunted."
She looked at the dark horizon.
"We go where they don't expect us. The Rogue Outskirts."
Asher's grin widened. "Smart. Too messy for the Alpha. Too illogical for the Warlock."
Damaris stood beside the downed drone.
He was ignoring their debate, using a thin thread of blue magic to dissect the machine's shattered components.
"Nyzor is escalating," the Warlock murmured. "The drone's weapon was designed to vaporize its target. Not capture but completely vaporize."
He stood up, wiping oil from his gloves.
"We are exposed. We must move."
"Then move!" Emin snapped.
He headed for the warehouse exit. "Warlock, watch her back. Rogue, take point. If either of you tries to double-cross me, the truce ends in blood."
Asher rolled his eyes. "Such a poet."
He took the lead, melting into the shadows.
The first ten minutes were an awkward, dangerous dance.
Asher was the Eyes. Moving low and fast. Signaling traps and patrols with subtle hand gestures.
Emin was the Wall. His large frame radiated protective tension. He walked right behind Ravenna, his scent overwhelming—pine, rain, and aggression.
Damaris was the Mind. He wove complex spells that clouded security cameras and deadened the heavy thud of Emin's boots.
And Ravenna?
Trapped in the center. The Heart.
She felt the Alpha's possessive frustration. The Warlock's cold calculation. The Rogue's quiet vigilance.
The Mate Bond wasn't a romance. It was a living, burning chain.
"Patrol ahead," Asher hissed.
He dropped into a crouch behind a dumpster.
"Two Lycans. Mid-rank with Nyzor marks. Sweeping the alley."
Emin tensed. Muscles coiled. "I take point."
"No," Damaris cut in. "Too messy. You cause too much noise. Asher, can you neutralize them silently?"
"Only if they don't shift," Asher replied, checking his knives. "If they shift, it's a bloodbath. Sirens, backup. The works."
Ravenna felt their fear spike. Emin's deep worry. Damaris's probability calculus crashing.
Her chaos energy spiked in response.
No fighting, she told herself. fighting slows us down.
"Wait," she whispered.
She closed her eyes. She remembered the tunnel collapse. The feeling of pushing.
She didn't aim at the patrols. She aimed at the environment.
She focused on the large, rusted water tower looming above the alley.
With a mental push, she let the Lycan side provide the force. She let the Witch side paint the target.
A sudden, intense pressure squeezed the metal supports.
SCREEEEEE.
A loud, agonizing groan of stressed metal tore through the quiet alley. The entire tower shuddered violently, threatening to collapse right on top of the patrol.
The two Lycans froze. They looked up in terror, scrambling backward.
"Go! Go!" Asher yelled.
He seized Ravenna's hand, pulling her into a flat-out run.
They shot past the terrified patrols. The guards were too busy watching the groaning death above them to notice the four shadows sprinting by.
They didn't stop running until the pavement turned to cracked dirt.
The dilapidated streets of the Rogue Outskirts. The air here was drier. It carried the faint scent of wild grass and gasoline.
Emin caught up. He was breathing heavily.
He grabbed Ravenna by the shoulders. Not with violence, but with urgent force.
"You are reckless!" he roared.
But the rage was mixed with a flicker of awe.
"You caused a structural failure to cover our tracks? That was... tactical."
"It was necessary," Ravenna snapped back. She shook off his grip. "We follow my rules. Or we get caught. No noise or fighting. Only survival."
Damaris joined them. He looked unruffled, though his chest heaved slightly.
"Inelegant," the Warlock critiqued. "But effective. You demonstrated control over the environment, Hybrid. You are capable of strategy."
Asher leaned against a flickering streetlamp.
He watched the two high-born lords fussing over her.
"The Alpha liked the chaos. The Warlock liked the math. See, Boss? You're already uniting them."
Ravenna felt the full weight of her new reality settle on her shoulders.
She was bound to three powerful men who saw her as a means to an end. And she had just set the rules for their unwilling marriage.
"We need a safe spot," Ravenna said. She looked out toward the open, unpatrolled land. "We need cover. And we need to figure out how to survive the real threat."
"The real threat is Nyzor," Emin confirmed. His voice was a low growl. "He won't stop. Not now that he knows you're the Key."
Damaris nodded grimly. "We need time. Time to understand this bond. And time to harness your power, Ravenna."
Asher stepped forward. His green eyes glinted in the dark.
"My territory," he said. "I know the old guard posts. We can hide there. But that's just survival."
He looked at the Alpha and the Warlock.
"You want training? You'll have to convince them to teach you without killing each other."
Ravenna looked at the three men who defined her destiny.
The protective Alpha. The calculating Warlock. The cynical Rogue.
Their forced alliance was fragile as glass. But it was the only shield she had.
"Fine," Ravenna said.
She started walking toward the dark outline of the ruins.
"Lead the way, Asher. It's time to learn how to fight."