His voice dropped so low I almost didn’t catch it.

"You... you want me gone?"

The question didn’t sound like Zain. There was no command in it. No dominance. No control.

Just... hurt.

My chest tightened.

"What? No—"

"Because that’s what this feels like, Violet," he cut in, a hollow edge slipping into his tone. His hand fell away from me, like even touching me suddenly felt uncertain. "You leave. You hide from me. You mask our bond. And now you’re standing here telling me you did it for everyone else."

His jaw clenched, eyes darkening, with rage this time, but heavier.

"Where exactly do I fit in that?"

The words hit harder than his anger ever could. "You fit everywhere," I said, stepping closer despite the tension still crackling between us. "You just don’t see what I see."

"And what is that?" he asked, voice sharpening again, but it lacked heat. It was defensive now. Guarded.

"That you don’t stop," I said quietly. "When it comes to me... You don’t think. You don’t weigh consequences. You react."

"Because you’re my mate," he snapped.

"And because I’m your mate," I fired back, "I know exactly what you’re capable of when you think I’m in danger."

I softened, just a fraction. "If you had gotten to the camp before I stopped you... Would you have asked questions first?"

He didn’t answer. Because we both knew the truth.

My voice dropped. "You would’ve killed them."

His gaze shifted away for a second, jaw ticking. "I would’ve done what I had to," he muttered.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You would’ve done what you felt was right. And there’s a difference." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

His shoulders tensed, but he didn’t argue.

"I wasn’t choosing them over you," I continued, quieter now. "I was trying to stop you from becoming something you’d regret... for me."

That made him look back at me. The anger was still there. The possessiveness. The pull.

But now there was something else woven into it. Understanding. Reluctant. Bitter. But real.

"And the child?" he asked after a moment, voice lower now. "Was that part of protecting me, too?"

My breath caught.

"That..." I hesitated, fingers instinctively brushing over my stomach, "That scared me."

His expression shifted instantly. "Scared you?" he repeated.

"I didn’t know what it meant," I admitted. "Everything is changing so fast, my bloodline, whatever Garrick is trying to show me, this place... and then this too?" I shook my head slightly. "I needed to understand it before I brought you into it."

"What are you doing, Violet? I should be the one protecting you, not the other way around."

Seeing Zain, the Demon Alpha, the apex predator who had haunted my father’s nightmares and my own childhood training look at me with such raw, unprotected hurt made my chest ache worse than the impact of his wolf slamming into me.

"I don’t want you gone, Zain," I said, my voice cracking as I stepped closer, reaching for him. "But I need you to breathe. Look at what just happened. You didn’t even recognize me. If I hadn’t managed to speak, if you hadn’t stopped..." My eyes flicked involuntarily down to my stomach, where his hand still rested, frozen and heavy. "...you could have killed us."

His hand flinched against my skin, but he didn’t pull it away. Instead, his fingers flexed, gripping the fabric of my shirt as if anchoring himself to the reality that I was still breathing.

"I would never," he growled, though the fierce conviction in his voice was warred by the subtle tremor in his jaw. "My wolf would have torn out its own throat before tearing yours, Violet. The bond... even buried under whatever foul magic you drank, it knew you. It was fighting to find you."

"But it was fighting," I countered, placing my hands over his, feeling the blistering heat radiating from his skin. "You came here ready for a massacre. Nora is dead, Zain. The camp is already mourning, terrified, and suspicious. If you had stormed in there—"

"What?" Zain’s eyes narrowed, the golden hue flaring back to life, sharpening with immediate, lethal focus. "Who is that? How?"

"I don’t know," I admitted, a cold shiver racing down my spine as Maelra’s words echoed in my mind. A demon will always remain a demon. "I left her for just a few hours. When I came back, she was... gone. But before she died, she told me something."

I hesitated, pulling back slightly. The memory of Nora’s vacant, glassy eyes and her monotone whisper made the forest feel ten degrees colder.

"What did she say, Violet?" Zain’s voice dropped, the Alpha command slipping out unconsciously, vibrating through the air.

"She... she said our baby would kill me. Well, not exactly, but I think that’s what she meant."

Zain stiffened. Every muscle in his towering frame locked up, turning him to solid stone beneath my fingertips. The possessive warmth of his hand on my stomach turned entirely rigid. For a long, terrifying moment, he didn’t breathe. The silence of the forest returned, absolute and suffocating.

"She was a child," I added quickly, desperate to break the suffocating tension. "A child who sleepwalked, who was prone to fever dreams. Maelra thinks it means something, but—"

"Maelra is a fool who knows nothing of our kind," Zain interrupted, his voice dangerously smooth, the hurt from seconds ago entirely locked behind a wall of cold, absolute authority. He stepped in closer, bridging the gap between us until his shadow completely swallowed me. "And she knows nothing of what our child is capable of."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I whispered, my hunter instincts suddenly flaring, a warning bell ringing loud and clear in the back of my mind.

He didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze lifted from my stomach, locking onto mine with an intensity that made my knees weak. "It means we are leaving. Now. You have played your games in the dirt with these people long enough, Violet. You are pregnant with the next Alpha of the Blackwood Pack. You are coming home."

He reached for my wrist, not violently, but with an unyielding finality.

"No," I said, stepping back, pulling out of his reach.

Zain paused, his hand hanging in the empty air between us. A dangerous, low rumble started deep in his chest. "Violet. Do not test my patience today. Not after what I’ve just endured, thinking I lost you."

"I am not a prize to be hauled back to your castle because I’m carrying an heir, Zain!" I snapped, the fire returning to my blood. "There is a killer in this forest. A child is dead, and she warned me about our bloodline. I am a hunter. I don’t run from shadows, and I don’t hide behind you just because things are getting complicated!"

"A hunter?" he chuckled darkly. "A hunter, Violet. You never even wanted to be one."

Before Zain could finish talking, the crunch of dry twigs snapped from the edge of the clearing.

We both whirled around.

Standing at the tree line, a silver blade catching the faint sunlight filtering through the canopy, was Maelra, backed by three shifted wolves, their lips curled back over dripping fangs.

"I told you, Violet," Maelra said, her voice steady but laced with lethal intent. "A demon is always a demon. Step away from him."