EMMA'S POV
Emma doesn't sleep.
She sits on her bed with the phone in her hands, staring at the two texts. She reads them over and over like maybe the words will change. Like maybe they'll make more sense the fifth time or the tenth time or the fiftieth time.
We need to talk about your situation.
You can't run from this. We both know that. Let me help.
By morning, she's convinced herself that it's some kind of scam. Someone pretending to know something. Someone fishing for information. It happens. People get random texts all the time. This means nothing.
But her wolf knows better.
Her wolf is pacing inside her chest. Restless. Scared. Like something bad is coming and there's nothing Emma can do to stop it.
She calls in sick to work even though she knows she's already behind on rent. Sophie answers and her voice is concerned when Emma says she has the flu. Sophie tells her to rest and not to worry about coming back until she's better.
Emma doesn't tell her that better might never come.
She spends the day packing. Throwing things into her truck. Grabbing documents and money and whatever might matter. She plans to leave tonight. Drive until she finds somewhere more remote. Somewhere that's not connected to her old life at all.
She's loading the last box when her phone rings.
Not a text. An actual call.
Emma's heart stops.
The number isn't unknown this time. It has a name attached to it.
Derek Stone.
She stares at the phone like it's a snake. Marcus's brother. The person who sent her to that safe house three months ago. The person who was supposed to help her disappear. The person who clearly failed because they've found her again.
The phone keeps ringing.
Emma considers not answering. She considers throwing the phone in the lake. She considers getting in the truck and driving away without saying anything.
She answers.
"Don't run," Derek says before she can speak. His voice is calm. Controlled. Like he knows she's about to panic. "Just listen."
"How did you get this number?" Emma's voice sounds strange. Thin. Like it's coming from someone else.
"The bond shifted last night," Derek says and he ignores her question completely. "Marcus felt it. He felt the baby, Emma. He knows."
The words hit her like a physical blow.
No. That's not possible. The bond was dead. It was gone. It was supposed to stay broken.
"That's impossible," Emma says but her voice cracks on the word.
"The mate bond doesn't die when a baby is created," Derek says and he sounds tired. Like he's had to explain this to Marcus a hundred times. "It changes. It adapts. It connects to the new life inside you. Marcus felt it yesterday afternoon like someone just turned on a light he'd been sitting in the dark waiting for."
Emma's hands are shaking so badly she can barely hold the phone.
"He's looking for you," Derek continues. "He's tearing through every territory. He's neglecting everything. The pack, the council, all of it. He only cares about finding you. And Emma, when he finds you, you won't be able to stop him. He's not thinking straight. He's running on alpha instinct and desperation and he will tear apart anyone who gets between him and you."
"I don't want to see him," Emma says. The words come out like a snarl. Like her wolf is the one talking. "I don't want him anywhere near me or this baby. He made his choice."
"He regrets it," Derek says quietly. "He's been regretting it for three months. He never actually bonded with Elena. He was supposed to that night but something stopped him. He felt the rejection wrong. He felt like he was dying. And then when the bond shifted yesterday, he realized why. Because you're carrying his heir. Because something in that bond refused to let go completely."
Emma's breath is coming fast now. Her vision is getting spotty. She's going to have a panic attack right here in her cabin with a baby growing inside her and nowhere safe to run.
"I'm offering you protection," Derek says. "A safe house. Resources. Money if you need it. Security that Marcus can't break through. You and the baby can be safe while he figures out what he's doing. But you have to let me help. You can't run from an alpha who's determined to find you. You'll only end up getting hurt."
"No," Emma says. "No safe houses. No protection. No contact. I'm leaving tonight and you're going to tell him you couldn't find me. You're going to tell him I disappeared."
"Emma, listen to me"
She hangs up.
Her hands are shaking so badly she drops the phone. It lands on the cabin floor and the screen cracks but it still works. It's still connected to Derek. To Marcus. To the pack that's hunting her.
Emma grabs the phone and shoves it into her backpack.
She needs to leave now. Not tonight. Now. This minute. She needs to get in the truck and drive as far away as possible before Marcus tracks her. Before his alpha power figures out which direction she went. Before the bond pulls him straight to her location.
She's halfway to the door when she freezes.
Outside the cabin, the night is dark and silent and suddenly it's not silent anymore.
A howl tears through the forest.
It's not a normal wolf sound. It's an alpha howl. Raw power and desperation and something that sounds like breaking. Something that sounds like an alpha calling for his mate.
Emma knows that howl.
She would know that howl if she was dead. If she was in another world. If she was anywhere that wasn't here, she would still know that sound. It's the same howl Marcus gave when they first bonded. The howl that claimed her in front of the entire pack. The howl that said she was his.
The howl that said he's coming for her.
Emma's legs give out and she collapses against the cabin wall.
He's close. Close enough to howl. Close enough that the sound carries straight to her. Close enough that if she shifts right now, she could run toward him and it would only take minutes for them to find each other.
The howl comes again, closer this time.
And this time, something inside Emma's chest responds to it.
The dead bond pulses.
Her wolf wants to answer. Wants to howl back. Wants to run toward him because he's calling and the bond is alive and screaming inside her to go to him.
But Emma holds on to the wall and forces herself to breathe.
She can't let him find her.
She can't.
Even as the bond throbs with his nearness, even as her wolf claws at her insides to answer him, Emma crawls toward the door and forces herself to move.
She has maybe ten minutes before he finds the cabin.
Maybe less.