Page 138 of Cruel Vows
“Vor.”His voice was rough and tired.“News.”
I pressed a kiss to Lena’s forehead, letting her scent ground me.“Stay here.”
“No.”She was already reaching for the clothes we had abandoned last night, pulling my shirt over her head, the fabric hanging to mid-thigh on her smaller frame.“Whatever it is, we hear it together.”
I wanted to argue.My wolf wanted to argue, wanted to tuck her somewhere safe while we dealt with whatever threat Dmitri was bringing.But I had just confessed to treating her like someone to protect instead of someone to trust.I was not about to make that mistake again.
We found Dmitri in the main room, a cup of coffee in his hands that he clearly had not touched.His face was grim, shadows carved beneath his eyes, his posture tight with the kind of tension that preceded violence.He had been on watch all night while we slept, and whatever he had learned had not improved his mood.
“Tell me,” I said.
“Two pieces of news.”Dmitri set the coffee down on the scarred wooden table.“Neither good.”
Lena moved closer to my side, her shoulder brushing mine.She braced herself, her fear coiling beneath the steady calm of her surface.
“First.Michael.”Dmitri’s jaw went rigid, a muscle jumping beneath his stubbled skin.“We found his car abandoned near the state line.Signs of struggle, some blood on the driver’s seat, but no body.He made it out of the woods, got to his vehicle, and disappeared.”
My wolf threw himself at my control, a sound rumbling up from my chest before I could stop it.The bastard was still out there.Still a threat to our mate.
“He is gone,” Dmitri continued.“But not captured.Not dead.Still out there somewhere, wounded and dangerous.”
Lena’s grip on my hand tightened, her nails digging into my skin.Cold fear washed through her, sharp and bright as winter ice.Her half-brother, the murderer, was still hunting.
“And the second piece?”
Dmitri’s expression darkened further, something close to grief flickering across his features before he locked it down.“The Pakhan has issued a formal statement.You are stripped of your Vor status, effective immediately.All wolves are ordered to sever contact with you.Kill order extended to any pack member who provides you aid or shelter.”
The words landed like hammer blows.Stripped of status.Kill order.Everything I had built over the past decade, the position I had clawed my way into through blood and loyalty and ruthless determination, gone in a single decree.
“Viktor?”I asked.
“He refused the order to bring you in.He is running now too.”Dmitri met my eyes, and I saw the weight of what he was not saying.Viktor, my oldest friend in the pack, my wolf brother, now a fugitive because he chose loyalty to me over obedience to Max.“Last I heard, he was heading for the western territories, trying to reach allies outside of Max’s direct control.The pack is fracturing, Rafa.Those loyal to you against those loyal to the Pakhan.”
Civil war.The words echoed in the small cabin, too large for the space, too heavy to carry.
Lena turned to face me.Her expression was calm, but I could feel the fear running beneath it, the weight of what we were facing settling onto her shoulders alongside everything else she had already endured.
“We knew this was coming,” she said quietly.
“We did.”I pulled her against my side, my arm tight around her waist, needing to feel her warmth, her solidity, the proof that she was real and here and mine.“Michael is still out there.The pack is hunting us.We have enemies on every side.”
“Yes.”
“The hotel will be a target.Your staff, your guests, everyone you care about could become leverage.”
“I know.”
“I have resources hidden, contacts outside Max’s reach, safe houses he does not know about.We can run.We can disappear for a while, rebuild, figure out our next move.”
Lena looked up at me, her blue eyes steady and fierce despite the fear I could feel bleeding through our connection.“Then we face it side by side.”
I pulled her closer, pressing my lips to her hair.My mate.My partner.My equal in this war we had not chosen but would fight anyway.
But even as I held her, the weight of what was coming pressed down on us.Michael, wounded and obsessed, would not stop until he had Lena or was dead.Max would not rest until his authority was restored, until I was brought to heel or eliminated as a threat to pack stability.We were surrounded by enemies, trapped between a stalker’s obsession and a pack war, with nothing but each other and a handful of loyal wolves to see us through.
My wolf settled against my bones, quiet for once, conserving strength for the battles ahead.I had our mate.I had her love, freely given, finally earned.That would have to be enough.I had the loyalty of Viktor and Dmitri.
Through the bond, Lena’s resolve hardened into something that matched my own.Fear and determination.Love and steel.
The war was just beginning.
