The forest doesn't feel the same once she's gone.
Kade stands there long after Aurora disappears between the trees, the echo of her paws fading into the night like a wound that refuses to close. The mate bond stretches, tight, burning, vicious, before snapping back violently, slamming into his chest.
He gasps.
His knees hit the ground this time.
Pain rips through him, sharp and unforgiving, as if something inside him has been torn loose and left bleeding. His wolf howls inside his skull, a sound so raw it nearly drives him mad.
"She ran," his wolf snarls. "You let her run."
"I didn't let her," Kade rasps, fingers clawing into the dirt. "I couldn't stop her."
"You chose not to."
Kade squeezes his eyes shut.
Images assault him, Aurora as a child, small and silent at the edge of the pack; Aurora with bruised pride and sharper words; Aurora's eyes tonight, blazing gold and heartbreak and power he doesn't understand.
Marked.
A myth made flesh.
And she's his.
Or she would be.
If he hadn't spent years making her hate him.
Footsteps crunch through the underbrush.
Kade is on his feet instantly, Alpha power flaring instinctively as wolves pour into the clearing, warriors, scouts, elders. His beta shifts back into human form beside him, eyes wide with unease.
"What happened?" Joren demands. "We felt the surge. The forest nearly buckled."
Kade doesn't answer right away.
Because the truth tastes like blood.
"She shifted," an elder breathes, eyes darting to the scorched earth, the lingering golden glow etched into the ground. "That aura… that wasn't normal."
Another wolf swallows hard. "That was her, wasn't it? The girl."
The girl.
Not Aurora. Never Aurora.
Kade's jaw tightens.
"She ran," he says finally. "Into the deeper woods."
A murmur ripples through the group.
"Alone?" someone asks.
"Yes."
Fear sharpens the air.
The eldest councilman steps forward, voice grave. "Then we must find her. A wolf with that kind of power, unchecked, could destabilize the pack. Or worse."
"Or worse," another echoes. "If she loses control, "
Kade's power slams outward.
The ground trembles.
Silence crashes down like a guillotine.
"No one hunts her," he says, voice cold, Alpha command woven through every word. "No one tracks her. No one touches her."
The elders stare at him in shock.
"She's a danger," one snaps. "Marked wolves are weapons, Alpha-to-be. You know the legends."
Kade steps forward, eyes burning. "She's not a weapon. She's a person. And she's been treated like dirt her entire life by this pack."
That lands harder than any roar.
Joren exhales slowly. "Kade… your mate bond, "
"Is my burden," Kade cuts in. "Not the pack's excuse to cage her."
An elder studies him sharply. "You're choosing her over your duty."
Kade doesn't hesitate.
"Yes."
The word rings absolute.
"If you move against her," he continues, voice low and lethal, "you move against me."
The council stiffens.
They've never heard him sound like this, unbending, unyielding, already an Alpha in everything but title.
Finally, the eldest nods once. "Very well. We'll stand down. For now."
For now.
Kade knows what that means.
They will wait.
They will watch.
And the moment Aurora falters, they will strike.
The pack begins to disperse, uneasy, whispering. When they're gone, Kade sinks back against the tree Aurora had touched earlier, his chest aching with every breath.
His wolf presses close inside him, quieter now. "She didn't run because she's weak."
"I know," Kade whispers.
"She ran because she's afraid of us."
The truth settles heavy and bitter.
Kade tips his head back, staring up at the moon, the same moon that marked her, claimed her, changed everything.
"I'll find her," he murmurs, not as a promise to the pack, but to the bond pulsing painfully in his chest. "Not to cage her. Not to force her back."
His fingers curl into fists.
"But I won't let the world destroy her either."
Somewhere deep in the forest, Aurora runs free, golden, wild, terrified.
And for the first time in his life, Kade understands what it truly means to chase someone who doesn't want to be caught.
Not with force.
Not with pride.
But with patience.
Even if it takes everything he has left.