🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡
The forest swallowed whole the mont Kaia burst through my skin in one painless motion, the world sharpening into a lattice of scent and motion. Instinct took over as my paws tore through damp earth and frozen leaves.
The trees blurred past in streaks of dark and green, branches whipping at my flanks. Heady adrenaline pumped in every muscle, singing with the rembered geotry of flight. I did not look back; the gods knew I didn’t need to. His presence slamd into the woods, heavy and inevitable as death.
The ground gave way to tremors with every arch of his strides, even with the distance between us.
It confused .
And gave hope, in a way.
I expected the High Alpha of the Umbra realm to be a stealthy hunter, but I could sense him behind , my mind computing without strain exactly how much distance split us.
I could feel his cold. The air that carried him was steel and winter and sothing different yet so familiar—the low hum of restraint abandoned.
My chest tightened as I forced my already long strides to lengthen, angling for thicker cover, my body forced to burn through the ache rather than think and plot a way to survive him.
Kaia wanted the climb, but I pushed lower into the shadow and underbrush. She easily conceded, trusting my instinct.
I cut right, then left, doubling back on my own path before leaping a stream and plunging upstream through the icy water to drown my scent. I did not even have ti to brace for the cold.
His so-called backyard was an entirely different world compared to his mansion—even that I had not explored fully.
For a heartbeat, as water dripped down my now-heavy fur, I dared to hope that I might buy ti.
Then, my muscles locked. I stilled like an animal detecting a shift in the wind. I heard sothing.
Nothing.
I heard nothing.
The ground no longer quivered from his heavy strides. His scent of pure cold had receded to nothingness; his presence had eased into the air, folding into it and vanishing like it had never existed.
My skin prickled as if a cold hand traced my spine. In the dark, in woods uncharted by , I was alone and cold and... afraid, as his words hissed through my mind.
...When I catch you, I won’t be holding back...
The gleam of pure, unraveling wrath in his gaze would haunt for life, as it did now. The undertone was clear, and I ached in more ways than one.
Right now, fear remained dominant. I scanned for him, eyes darting sharp enough to hurt, my snout rising to inhale the scent of the woods, tracking anything strange within—hiding, waiting, close or far.
But it all ca back void.
I would know him masked; in another world and another life I would recognize him. But here... I could not even find him.
I was alone, but I knew better than to believe that.
Vladimir did not make empty promises... or threats.
I counted the seconds of deafening silence to keep myself grounded enough not to be ambushed. Still, the slow simring of inevitability remained—pitying, mocking.
I dared to raise my gaze, hoping and dreading to see his white fur.
Nothing.
Again.
Could a white wolf hide in the dark?
Desperation fueled , and I did what I had never tried before. I reached out the only way my body knew how. I looked for him through our incomplete bond.
It was a mistake. Agony needled through like I had prodded a tender, inflad wound.
I tried to bite back the yelp that threatened to escape but failed. In the still woods, even the bare fraction of the sound echoed like a siren.
Fuck.
The ground tremored again.
Not distant.
Not behind .
Not even close enough to track.
It ca from beneath.
Kaia barely had ti to react before the earth gave way under my paws, soil collapsing in on itself with a violent roar as roots snapped and stone fractured. Instinct scread fall, but there was no falling—not really. The ground rebounded instead, an explosive force hurling upward as if the forest itself had spat out.
My body left the earth.
Tail tucked hard, ears flattened against my skull, every muscle locked as cold terror detonated through . The world dropped away in a sickening lurch, trees shrinking beneath , sky rushing too fast and too open. Kaia—usually so sure, so anchored—could not break through the panic seizing us both.
This should be—
Height stole her voice.
Stole mine.
I twisted midair on pure reflex, bracing for the impact I knew was coming, lungs burning as fear hollowed out from the inside. There was no ti to think, no ti to correct, only the awful certainty of gravity reclaiming what it was owed.
Then—
White.
A violent blur of it.
The unmistakable scent of Vladimir tore through the air, sharp and absolute, flooding my senses so fast it made my blood spike painfully hot. There was no warning, no sound, just the sudden crushing certainty of him colliding with my trajectory.
Hands—no, claws—closed around .
Not a catch.
A snatch.
The sky vanished as I was ripped from it, montum brutally redirected as he twisted with , his body taking the brunt of the descent. We hit the ground hard but controlled, earth buckling beneath his weight, my body shielded instinctively as he rolled us through the impact.
Pain flared—but muted. Contained.
I skidded to a stop beneath him, breath tearing from my lungs in a startled gasp, the forest rushing back in all at once.
And then I realized the downside.
He was on .
Fully. Completely.
His weight pinned to the ground—massive, coolness bleeding through white fur into my trembling body. His chest rose and fell once, heavy and close enough that I could feel it, sll him, feel him in a way that made Kaia shudder beneath my skin.
The hunt was over.
And he had caught .
His jaws clamped over my ruff as he growled.
"Moya."
Loud and clear.
Mine.
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