I make it fifty feet before I hear them.
Footsteps. Four sets. Following at a distance.
Not close enough to crowd me. But not far enough to pretend they're not there.
I keep walking. My bare feet find paths through the undergrowth automatically. My wolf senses guide me even in human form. The forest floor should hurt, should cut, but my skin has changed. Everything has changed.
The footsteps continue, steady and deliberate.
Of course they do.
I stop and turn.
All four of them freeze. Still naked. Still watching me with expressions I refuse to decode. The moonlight catches on their skin, on the tension in their shoulders. They look like they're waiting for permission to breathe.
"I need clothes," I say flatly.
Cassian nods once, quick and efficient. "I'll get them."
He shifts without another word and runs back toward the compound. The other three remain, standing in the shadows like sentinels I never asked for.
I cross my arms over my chest. The night air is cold against my skin, but I refuse to shiver in front of them. Refuse to show them anything that looks like weakness.
"You're following me," I say.
Draco meets my gaze without flinching. "Yes."
At least he's honest.
"I told you not to."
"You said if we follow, it's on your terms," Lucen corrects, his voice carrying that sharp edge I remember from a thousand insults. "You didn't say we couldn't follow."
Anger flares hot in my chest, spreading through my limbs like fire. "That's not what I meant."
"Then say what you mean."
The words are sharp. Challenging. The same tone he used when he'd mock me in front of the pack, when he'd find new ways to make me feel small.
My wolf stirs beneath my skin. Power ripples outward, and I feel the air around me thicken with it. Both twins tense immediately, their bodies going rigid like they've been struck.
I force it down, dragging the power back inside me. Barely.
"Fine," I say, my voice low and controlled. "I'll be clear."
I take a step toward them. They don't back away, but I see the effort it takes to hold their ground. See the way their muscles lock, the way their breath catches.
"I do not forgive you," I start, each word deliberate. "Either of you. Or them."
I gesture toward Bastien, who stands slightly apart from the twins, his head already bowed like he knows what's coming.
"What you did to me for years wasn't pack discipline. It wasn't correction. It was cruelty." My voice doesn't rise, doesn't crack. I won't give them that. "You made me feel worthless. You made me believe I deserved to be treated like nothing. And now you want me to accept that we're bonded? That I'm supposed to just forget everything because fate decided we belong together?"
Silence stretches between us, thick and heavy.
Lucen's jaw tightens, muscle jumping beneath skin. Draco's expression doesn't change, but something flickers in his eyes. Something that might be regret or shame or just the reflection of moonlight.
Bastien's head drops lower. Shame radiates off him in waves I can smell even without my wolf fully present. It's acrid and bitter, mixing with the night air.
"I don't want this bond," I say quietly. "I don't want you."
The words land like blows. I can see them hit. Can see the twins flinch despite their control, despite years of training that taught them never to show pain.
Good.
"But you're going to follow me anyway," I continue, watching their faces. "Because the bond won't let you do anything else."
Draco's hands curl into fists at his sides. "We can fight it."
"Can you?"
He doesn't answer. The silence is answer enough.
Cassian returns carrying a bundle, his breathing heavy from the run. He shifts and hands me clothes without meeting my eyes, his gaze fixed somewhere over my shoulder.
A shirt. Pants. Boots. All too large, clearly pulled from someone else's belongings, but functional.
I dress quickly, aware of their eyes on me even as they try to look away. The fabric smells like pack. Like the compound I'm leaving behind. Like everything I'm trying to escape.
When I'm finished, I turn back to them and wait until all four are looking at me.
"If you're going to follow, these are my rules," I say. "Non-negotiable."
All four of them watch me. Waiting. For the first time in my life, they're waiting for my words instead of talking over them.
"No touching," I start. "Not unless I give explicit permission."
Draco opens his mouth. I cut him off with a look.
"No commands. I don't care what your ranks are. I don't care about Alpha authority. You don't give me orders."
Lucen's eyes flash, that familiar anger sparking. "What if there's danger?"
"Then you warn me. You don't command me."
His jaw works, grinding back whatever argument he wants to make. But he doesn't speak.
"And no using pack authority on me," I finish. "No dominance games. No submission demands. You treat me like an equal or you don't follow at all."
The twins look at each other. Some silent communication passes between them, the kind that comes from sharing a womb and a life. They've always had that, that wordless understanding. I used to envy it.
Cassian speaks first, his voice steady and sure. "Agreed."
Bastien nods immediately. "Yes."
The twins take longer. I can see them struggling, see the war playing out behind their eyes. Everything I'm asking goes against their nature, against how they've been raised. Alpha heirs don't take orders. They give them. They dominate. They control.
"Fine," Draco finally says, the word forced out like it costs him something.
Lucen's agreement comes a beat later. "Fine."
I don't believe either of them will follow through completely. Instinct runs too deep, training too thorough. But it's a start. It's more than I ever had before.
"Good," I say. "Then stay back. Give me space."
I turn and start walking again, moving deeper into the trees.
The footsteps follow. Quieter this time. More careful. Like they're afraid of spooking me.
But still there.
The forest grows denser as we move deeper into unclaimed territory. Trees press closer together, their branches weaving overhead into a canopy that blocks most of the moonlight. The darkness doesn't bother me. My wolf navigates easily, instinctively. I can sense everything around me. Every heartbeat. Every breath. Every shift in the air.
Including the four males behind me.
The bond pulls constantly, a physical sensation I can't ignore. Two threads stronger than the others. The twins. It's like having fishing hooks lodged in my chest, dragging me backward even as I push forward. The pain is dull but persistent, a reminder I can't escape.
I grit my teeth and keep moving, focusing on the path ahead instead of the pull behind.
Behind me, I hear Cassian's voice. Low. Meant to be private but my enhanced hearing catches it anyway, picking up every word as clearly as if he were speaking directly to me.
"She's stronger than any of us."
"She shouldn't be," Bastien responds, his voice rough. "She's newly awakened."
"Direwolves are different," Cassian says. "They don't follow our rules."
"Nothing about this follows the rules."
Silence for a moment. Then Cassian speaks again, softer this time.
"We broke her."
"I know."
"I don't know if she'll ever forgive us."
"She shouldn't."
The words are quiet. Honest. Full of a remorse that might have mattered years ago, when I was still hoping for kindness, still believing I could earn their respect.
Now it's just noise. Just words that change nothing.
I push deeper into the forest. My legs start to ache, muscles protesting the constant movement. The transformation took more out of me than I realized. My body is adjusting to having a wolf, to containing power it was never meant to hold, and the adjustment isn't gentle. Every step sends small shocks of pain through my calves and thighs.
I ignore the discomfort and keep walking. Pain is familiar. Pain I can handle.
The twins are arguing again. Quiet but intense, their voices carrying through the trees.
"We should make camp," Draco says.
"She won't stop," Lucen counters.
"She's exhausted."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Both of ours."
More silence. The kind that's heavy with things unsaid.
Then Lucen's voice, softer than before, almost vulnerable. "I didn't know."
"Know what?"
"That she was this. That she had a wolf. That she was..."
He doesn't finish. Doesn't need to.
"It doesn't change what we did," Draco says, and I hear the weight in his voice, the understanding that knowledge doesn't erase guilt.
"I know."
The bond flares suddenly. Sharp. Insistent. Like something grabbing at my chest and pulling hard.
Both twins stumble. I feel it through the connection, feel their confusion bleeding into mine, their frustration mixing with my pain.
The bond wants us closer. Wants us together. Wants to erase the distance I'm fighting so hard to maintain.
I push back against it mentally, shoving at the pull with everything I have. The pressure eases slightly, loosening its grip.
But it doesn't disappear. It never disappears.
We walk for hours. The sky starts to lighten at the edges, darkness fading to grey. Dawn approaching. My legs shake with each step now, trembling under the strain. My vision blurs at the edges, the world going soft and indistinct.
I need to rest. Need to stop. My body is screaming at me, begging me to listen.
But stopping means dealing with them. Means acknowledging that they're here and I can't make them leave. Means admitting weakness in front of the people who taught me that weakness was unforgivable.
I take another step. Then another.
My leg buckles.
I catch myself on a tree, fingers digging into bark. Pain shoots up my spine, sharp and sudden, stealing my breath.
Behind me, both twins gasp in unison.
I hear them stumble. Hear Draco curse, the word harsh and startled.
They feel it. Through the bond. My pain is their pain now, transmitted across whatever connection binds us.
The realization should satisfy me. Should feel like justice.
Instead, it just makes everything worse. Another thing I can't control. Another way they're tied to me whether I want them or not.
I force myself upright, pushing away from the tree. Take another step.
My legs give out completely.
I hit the ground hard. Hands and knees. Gasping. The impact jars through my bones, and I feel the twins stumble again somewhere behind me.
Footsteps rush toward me. Fast. Urgent.
"Don't," I manage, the word barely more than a whisper.
They stop. I can hear them breathing hard, can smell their concern mixing with frustration. Can feel their need to help warring with my order to stay back.
"You need to rest," Draco says, his voice tight with control.
"I'm fine."
"You're not."
I push myself up, my arms shaking with the effort. Everything shakes. My whole body feels like it's coming apart.
"I said I'm fine."
But I'm not. And we all know it. The lie hangs in the air between us, transparent and useless.
Cassian moves into my peripheral vision. Careful. Controlled. Not approaching, just repositioning so I can see him clearly.
"At least let us make camp," he says quietly. "You can rest. We'll keep watch."
"I don't need you to protect me."
"We know," Bastien says, and his voice is gentle in a way I've never heard from him before. Soft and careful, like he's approaching a wounded animal. "But you need rest. Let us do this one thing."
I want to refuse. Want to keep walking until I collapse completely and they're forced to leave me behind, forced to choose between following a corpse or finding someone stronger to serve.
But my body won't cooperate. My body has its own ideas about survival.
I try to stand again, pushing against the ground with trembling arms.
My legs buckle.
And this time when I fall, when my body hits the earth and everything goes black at the edges, the twins feel every second of it through the bond.