Adriel's POV
The moon was still high in the sky when I crossed the pack's border, but I no longer felt its pull. Not in the same way. My wolf was silent, curled so deep inside me she might never come back, I was numb, rejected, and broken.
The forest swallowed me whole.
My bare feet pounded against the earth, scraping roots, stones, and twigs, but I didn't stop running. Pain was better than what I'd left behind. Better than the hundreds of eyes I'd felt when Alex rejected me like I was something worthless.
"You're not enough."
The words echoed over and over in my mind, a curse branded into my skin. I wanted to scream, to rip the bond from my chest with my own claws. But the bond had already been torn. And now, I was hollow.
I didn't know how long I ran hours, maybe until the thick scent of pine turned to gasoline and city smog. I stumbled into the edge of the human world, where the darkness hummed with artificial lights and cars streaked down distant highways.
Somewhere behind me, the Kingdom pulsed with celebration. Mate pairings, mating bonds, promises of forever. The sound of it had rung in my ears like poison. It was too much. Too cruel.
I emerged from the woods just off a road, hidden by a slope and trees. My dress...the one the queen had given me was tattered, mud-stained, and clung to my skin like wet leaves. My hair was tangled in knots. My palms were bleeding.
And still, I kept walking.
Cars rushed by. None of them slowed.
No one stopped for a feral girl with red-rimmed eyes and a haunted look in her soul.
Eventually, I reached a gas station on the outskirts of a town. The lights buzzed overhead, casting a flickering glow over the broken concrete. I stood at the edge of the parking lot, unsure if I should go inside. I didn't belong here any more than I did back there.
But something tugged at me. An instinct.
I stepped inside.
The clerk barely looked up, chewing gum and scrolling through his phone. I kept my head down as I headed straight to the back, towards the restrooms. My reflection in the cracked mirror nearly made me flinch. I looked like a girl who had crawled out of a nightmare.
I tried to scrub the dirt off my face with the cheap soap, but the bruises beneath my eyes weren't just from crying, they were from everything. From being unloved. From being forgotten, from being… rejected.
When I returned to the front, the clerk was now watching me.
"You alright?" he asked, squinting like he was finally seeing me clearly.
I froze.
Before I could think of a lie, a deep voice cut through the store.
"She's with me."
The clerk turned. I turned.
A tall man stood at the doorway, dressed in all black slacks, a button-up shirt rolled at the sleeves, and a coat draped casually over one shoulder. His jaw was sharp, eyes dark and observant. Human. But powerful. Too powerful.
Something about him made my wolf stir for the first time in hours. Not in recognition but in warning.
The man walked in, his polished shoes echoing with every step. He stopped beside me, his cologne clean and expensive sharp citrus over warm spice.
He looked down at me for a beat too long. "You shouldn't be out here alone."
"I'm not with you," I snapped before I could stop myself, trying to step back.
He raised an eyebrow, amused. "No. But you will be."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he reached into his wallet and handed the clerk a card. "Anything she wants. Put it on this."
The clerk nodded dumbly, eyes wide as he accepted the card.
I stared at the man, my jaw locked. "You can't just..."
"You're bleeding," he interrupted smoothly, his gaze dropping to my hand. "Let's fix that before you pass out."
I hated that he sounded calm. Collected. Like he'd seen a hundred broken women and knew exactly how to play the role of rescuer.
He moved toward the door again, and before I could argue, my stomach clenched. Loudly.
He glanced back. "Hungry?"
I glared at him. "Don't ask questions you already know the answers to."
A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Good. You've got some fight left in you."
He took me to a hotel. Not a sleazy roadside one, but something modern and sleek too clean for someone like me.
"I can't afford this," I whispered, standing awkwardly in the marble lobby.
"I didn't ask you to."
The receptionist handed him a keycard with a look I didn't like. Too familiar, too interested.
"She's… with me," he told her with the same ease he'd told the clerk.
I hated how easily those words came to him. Like claiming I was as simple as stating a fact.
Once inside the elevator, he turned to me.
"You have a name?"
I hesitated. "Adriel."
"Last name?"
"None that matters anymore."
He studied me for a long second, then nodded. "Mason Sharp."
My blood went cold.
I knew that name. Even in the werewolf kingdom, we heard whispers of the human billionaire who owned half the Eastern Seaboard. Sharp Enterprises. Weapons. Technology. Secrets.
"You're… him?"
He shrugged. "Depends on who's asking. Right now, you're a stray in need of shelter."
"Stray," I repeated bitterly.
"You've got wolf written all over you, Adriel. You're not the first to come running out of the forest like hell followed behind."
I tensed. "You know about us?"
"I know enough. And I don't scare easily."
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to a penthouse suite so pristine I was afraid to breathe.
He let me step in first, then shut the door behind him. "You can use the guest room. There's a first-aid kit in the bathroom. Clothes in the closet. If you're hungry, call room service. It's covered."
I spun on him. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because I owe someone," he said simply, but his eyes darkened. "And maybe because you looked like you needed saving."
"I don't want saving."
"No," he said. "But you need it."
I showered for what felt like an hour. The water was hot enough to blister, but I didn't care. I scrubbed until my skin turned red. Until I felt some part of Alex fade off of me.
When I stepped out, I found a robe on the bed and a tray of food waiting. I didn't remember calling anyone.
I also didn't remember falling asleep.
But when I woke, it was to the sound of someone speaking softly outside my door.
I crept closer, pressing my ear against it.
"She doesn't know what she is yet," Mason's voice said. "But she will."
Silence.
"I'm not going to hand her over to them," he added, firmer now. "I don't care what the Council says. She's mine to protect now."
Mine.
That word curled around me like a brand.
I stepped back.
So this was what I'd run into. A human with power. With secrets. With motives I couldn't understand.
But unlike Alex… he hadn't rejected me.
He didn't look at me like I was weak.
He looked at me like I was… something more.
And that terrified me more than anything.