.....Fire and Fear...
Elena avoided him.
She slipped from Lorenzo's chambers before the sun could rise, her bare feet silent against the cold stone. The faint warmth his body had left on the sheets followed her like a ghost, wrapping around her even as she tried to escape it.
Her wolf howled in protest, clawing at her ribs, furious at the separation.
But Elena pressed a trembling hand to her chest and forced it down.
No. Not this. Not now.
Because letting herself fall into him meant trusting again.
And the last time she'd trusted, the world had burned.
She moved through the corridors like a shadow, avoiding guards, slipping past servants, eyes low. Every echo of her footsteps reminded her of the crackling village streets of her childhood. Every flicker of torchlight looked too much like fire.
She could still smell it sometimes.
Smoke. Blood. Death.
The silence wrapped around her like armor. Like chains.
---
But avoiding Lorenzo was impossible.
He was everywhere.
She felt the weight of his gaze in the dining hall even without looking up. Could feel the shift in the air when he entered a room. Her body recognized him before her mind ever could.
His scent followed her ,pine, smoke, something wild and dangerous. It coiled into her lungs, into her thoughts, until her heartbeat moved in time with it.
When his arm accidentally brushed past hers in the corridor, heat shot through her veins like lightning. Her breath hitched. Her fingers trembled violently.
She stepped away as if burned.
The heat didn't fade.
Between her thighs, low and desperate, a dull ache stirred. Her face flushed. Shame followed. Fear.
Her wolf stirred restlessly, pressing toward him, craving him, recognizing what her human side was desperate to deny.
Mate.
The word resonated through her like a curse.
And a promise.
.....
That evening, unable to breathe inside the suffocating stone walls, she slipped out to the small balcony of her room.
The forest stretched out before her , dark, endless, teasing her with the idea of freedom. The wind tangled in her hair, cool against her overheated skin.
She closed her eyes. Inhaled. Tried to remember how it felt to be alone without fear.
Then...
Her heartbeat faltered.
He was there.
She didn't hear him. She never did. That was the problem with Alphas. They moved like predators.
"Running again, little wolf?" Lorenzo's voice came from the shadows, low, velvet, dangerous.
Her fingers tightened around the railing as she turned. He stood only a few steps away, moonlight gleaming in his golden eyes and on the bare skin of his chest.
He didn't look angry.
He looked… hungry.
For her.
"I can smell it on you," he murmured, stepping closer. Slowly. As if approaching something wounded. "The fire in your blood. You can pretend all you want… but you feel it too."
Her breath grew shallow. Panic and desire tangled painfully in her chest. She shook her head hard, eyes glossy with unshed tears.
She opened her mouth, wanting to beg him to stop.
No sound came out.
Only broken silence.
His expression shifted at that ,softened, darkened, filled with something like pain.
"You're fighting it," he said quietly. "Fighting me. Fighting yourself."
He moved closer until her back pressed against the cold stone. His hands came up, bracing on either side of her, caging her in without touching.
Yet his presence burned.
"You don't have to run, Elena," he whispered, so close his lips almost brushed hers. "I would never force you. Not even if your body is already calling to mine."
A shudder passed through her as his forehead rested lightly against hers.
"You don't know how hard it is to hold back from what the bond demands of me."
Her body betrayed her. A soft, broken sound slipped from her throat — a whimper she didn't even realize she'd made.
His eyes shut for a brief, tortured moment.
"God help me…" he breathed.
The air between them snapped tight with tension.
The almost-kiss hovered. Dangerous. Forbidden. Sacred.
.....
A howl tore through the night.
Sharp. Twisted. Wrong.
Not one of theirs.
Elena's eyes widened in pure terror.
Then another answered it.
And another.
From deep within the forest came guttural cries that were not entirely wolf… and not entirely human. The sound crawled beneath her skin, yanking memories back from her childhood nightmare.
Rogues.
Worse than before.
Lorenzo pulled away from her instantly, his entire body going rigid, Alpha instincts flaring. His gaze snapped toward the darkness beyond the walls.
"Inside," he ordered, voice turning to steel. "Now."
She didn't move.
Fear glued her in place.
"Elena, that wasn't a request," he growled, already stepping back as power rushed through him, bones shifting, fur bursting through skin.
In seconds, the massive golden wolf stood where the man had been.
And then,he leapt from the balcony.
Vanishing into the night.
Leaving her there.
Alone.
With the sound of approaching death echoing through the forest.
Her heart pounded violently as she gripped the railing. The bond in her chest pulled outward, burning, demanding she follow, demanding she run to him, protect him, warn him.
Her wolf rose, feral and desperate.
He is mine.
The darkness below howled again.
Closer this time.
And Elena knew , with a chilling certainty that tonight was not just about rogues.
It was about her past coming to finish what it started.
And the choice she would have to make…
Run like she once did…
…or finally step into the fire beside him.
.....