Maren's POV
He's going to die saving the man who sold me.
I watch Kael run toward the burning auction house, and something inside me screams no.
Not because I care about him. I don't even know him.
But the bond cares.
The bond is wrapped around my heart like barbed wire, pulling tight every time he moves farther away. It's not a suggestion. It's not a gentle tug. It's a command.
Follow him. Protect him. Don't let him go alone.
Don't, Ronan says behind me. His voice is flat. Whatever you're thinking don't.
He's going to get himself killed.
Probably. Ronan doesn't even sound worried. He does that sometimes. Goes after people who don't deserve it. Can't seem to help himself.
And you just let him?
I don't let him do anything. He's the Rogue King. He does what he wants. Ronan crosses his arms. But if you follow him in there, you'll die. And then he'll die trying to save you. And then two hundred wolves at the sanctuary will lose the only alpha who ever gave a damn about them. So stay. Here.
The bond pulls harder.
My feet move before my brain catches up.
For the love of Ronan grabs my arm. Did you hear anything I just said?
Yes. I yank free. But he's my mate. I don't get a choice.
You always have a choice.
Not with this. I meet his eyes. You don't understand. The bond it's not asking. It's demanding.
Ronan stares at me for a long moment. Then he does something I don't expect.
He laughs.
Not a happy laugh. A dark, bitter one that sounds like old pain.
Yeah, he says quietly. I understand better than you think. He releases my arm. Fine. Go die. But if Kael tears me apart for letting you, I'm blaming you.
I don't wait for him to change his mind.
I run.
The auction house is an inferno. Flames pour from broken windows. Smoke clouds the sky. Heat hits me like a wall, stealing the air from my lungs.
Somewhere inside, wolves are screaming.
I push through the entrance what's left of it and the world turns orange and black. Fire everywhere. Bodies on the floor. Some moving. Some not.
Kael! I shout. My voice disappears into the roar of flames.
The bond pulls me left. Down a hallway. Past burning curtains and collapsing beams. My eyes water. My lungs burn. Every breath tastes like ash.
Then I see him.
Kael is dragging someone through the smoke my father, unconscious and bleeding. His clothes are scorched. His face is gray with smoke. But he's alive.
What are you doing here? Kael snarls when he sees me.
Saving you!
I don't need saving!
A beam crashes down between us, spitting sparks. I jump back. The fire is closing in. Eating the building from the inside out.
We need to go! I scream.
The back exit collapsed! Kael shifts my father's weight, coughing. Front door's the only way out!
But when I look back, flames are already blocking the hallway we came through.
We're trapped.
The bond flares with panic not mine. His.
For the first time since I met him, Kael looks genuinely afraid.
Maren. His voice is rough. Listen to me. When I tell you to run, you run. Don't look back. Don't wait for me. Just get out.
What are you
Promise me!
No!
Promise me!
I'm not leaving you! The words rip out of me before I can stop them. The bond won't let me! I can't leave you!
Something in his face cracks. You barely know me.
I know you didn't have to come back for him. I point at my father. You could have left him to burn. But you didn't. So no. I'm not leaving you to die in here.
Kael opens his mouth. Closes it. Then says something I don't expect.
You're going to be a problem, aren't you?
Despite everything the fire, the smoke, the fact that we might die in the next thirty seconds I almost laugh.
Probably.
The corner of his mouth twitches. Almost a smile. Good.
Then the ceiling groans.
We both look up.
Run! Kael shouts.
But there's nowhere to run. The fire's everywhere. The exits are blocked. The ceiling is coming down.
And suddenly, I understand something about the Ember Gift that my pack elders never taught me.
It doesn't just heal wounds that already exist.
It can prevent them.
I don't think. I just move.
I grab Kael's free hand the bond explodes with gold light and I pull. Not with my body. With the Ember. With the raw power that's been sleeping in my blood my entire life.
The fire bends.
I don't know how. I don't understand it. But the flames twist away from us, just for a second, creating a path through the inferno.
Go! I scream.
Kael doesn't argue. He runs, dragging my father, following the path I'm somehow holding open with nothing but willpower and desperation.
We burst through the front entrance just as the building collapses behind us.
The impact throws us forward. I hit the ground hard, tasting blood. My ears ring. My vision swims.
But we're alive.
All three of us.
I roll onto my back, gasping, staring at the stars. The bond hums with relief so strong it makes me dizzy.
Then Kael's face appears above me.
What, he says slowly, was that?
I don't know.
The Ember Gift doesn't control fire.
I know.
So what did you just do?
I said I don't know! I sit up, wincing. Everything hurts. Maybe the bond changed it. Maybe I'm just I don't know desperate? Does it matter? We're alive!
Kael stares at me like I'm a puzzle he can't solve. You saved my life.
You saved my father's.
That's different.
Why?
Because I'm He stops. Shakes his head. Never mind.
Ronan appears from the shadows, looking thoroughly annoyed. Everyone done being heroes? Because we're still being hunted, and that little light show just told every wolf in the city exactly where we are.
As if summoned by his words, howls rise in the distance.
Closer than before.
Kael's jaw tightens. He looks at my father still unconscious, still bleeding then at me.
Can you walk?
Yes.
Can you run?
If I have to.
You have to. He stands, pulling me up with him. The bond sparks at the contact. Ronan, take the girl. I'll carry
No. The word comes out sharper than I meant it. I'll carry him.
Kael blinks. He sold you.
I know. I kneel beside my father. Use the Ember to check his injuries three broken ribs, smoke damage, minor burns. Survivable. But he's still my father. And I'm not the kind of person who leaves people to die.
Even people who deserve it.
Kael stares at me for a long, heavy moment. Then he says quietly, You're definitely going to be a problem.
Before I can answer, my father's eyes flutter open.
He sees me. Sees Kael. Sees the ruins of the auction house.
And then he does something I never expected.
He smiles.
Too late, he whispers. Blood on his teeth. Already done.
What are you talking about? I demand.
But he's not looking at me anymore. He's looking past me. At something in the shadows.
They're coming, he says. I told them everything. Where he lives. How to find it. The sanctuary He coughs, wet and horrible. I sold it. Just like I sold you.
My blood turns to ice.
You didn't. Kael's voice is deadly quiet. Tell me you didn't.
My father laughs. It sounds like death. Twelve thousand marks you paid for her. Know what the Council paid me? His eyes gleam. Fifty thousand. To tell them where the Rogue King hides. To give them the one thing they've wanted for eighteen years.
He grabs my wrist, his grip weak but desperate.
You think I sold you for debts? I sold you to bait him. And it worked.
The world stops.
Kael's face goes absolutely white.
And in the distance getting closer I hear something that makes my blood freeze.
Not howls.
Horns.
Council war horns.
Dozens of them.
My father's smile widens. They'll kill everyone in that sanctuary. Every pack less wolf. Every orphan. Every broken creature he's been hiding. He looks at Kael. And it's all because of her.
Then his eyes close.
His heart stops.
And I realize too late that everything was a trap.
The auction. The bond. The fire.
All of it.
My father didn't sell me because he was desperate.
He sold me because someone paid him to destroy the Rogue King.
And I walked right into it.
Kael turns to me slowly. His eyes are empty. Cold.
Two hundred wolves, he says quietly. All dead. Because I saved you.
The bond screams with his rage. His grief. His absolute certainty that he just made the worst mistake of his life.
And I can't breathe.
Because he's right.