Maelra’s eyes flicked to me, sharp and frustrated. "Violet, you don’t understand what he is."

"I understand exactly what he is," I shot back. "He’s my mate."

"And a demon," she added, voice hard.

Zain’s presence shifted behind me, darker now, colder.

"Careful," he said quietly. "You’re starting to test my patience."

"Kill him," she ordered.

The remaining two wolves didn’t hesitate this time. They attacked as a unit, one going low for Zain’s legs, the other leaping high for his throat. At the same time, Maelra moved, her silver blade flashing as she bypassed Zain entirely, aiming straight for me, intent on pulling me away or ending the threat of the child I carried.

"Maelra, don’t!"

I dodged her first slash, my hunter training kicking in even as my stomach cramped painfully from the exertion. I didn’t have my weapons; I had left them in the tent by Nora’s body. I was defenseless against a seasoned warrior with a silver blade.

Zain roared, a sound of absolute, unadulterated fury as he realized Maelra was targeting me. He caught the first wolf by its jaws, violently twisting and throwing it into a tree with a sickening thud. But the second wolf clamped its teeth firmly into his shoulder. Blood, dark and thick, burst through his shirt.

Zain barely seemed to feel it. He grabbed the wolf’s torso, his fingernails lengthening into sharp, black claws as he tore it off his flesh, but the distraction gave Maelra her opening.

She lunged at me, the silver blade aimed at my shoulder to pin me down.

"Get away from her!" Zain screamed.

He didn’t make it to me in time. Instead, a massive blast of dark, suffocating energythe literal manifestation of his demon curse, exploded outwardly from his body. It wasn’t a physical strike, but a wave of pure, crushing pressure that sent a shockwave through the clearing.

The force of it slammed into Maelra, lifting her off her feet and throwing her back into the brush. It hit the remaining wolves, knocking them flat.

Even the trees groaned, leaves raining down like confetti.

I was thrown backward by the wind of it, landing hard on my hands and knees. The herbs in my system couldn’t fight the sheer volume of power in the air anymore; the bond flared like a supernova, filling my senses with Zain’s agony, his terror, and his absolute, blinding possessiveness.

Silence fell over the clearing again, broken only by the ragged breathing of the wounded wolves and Maelra groaning in the bushes.

Zain stood in the center of the destruction, his shoulder bleeding heavily, his hands trembling as the black claws slowly receded. He looked around at the chaos, then his eyes locked onto me, trembling on the ground.

He walked over, his steps heavy, and knelt in front of me. He didn’t look at Maelra. He didn’t care if they lived or died anymore. He gently slipped his arms under my knees and my back, lifting me effortlessly into his chest.

"We are leaving," he whispered into my hair, his voice breaking with a terrifying mixture of love and authority. "They will kill you here, Violet. Or they will make you kill yourself. I am taking you home."

Zain’s grip flexed. "You are mine."

"I’m not property," I snapped immediately.

His head dipped slightly toward me. "You know that’s not what I meant."

I looked over his shoulder at Maelra, who was struggling to sit up, her face covered in dirt and blood, her eyes full of a quiet, vengeful hatred. If I stayed, I was a traitor. If I left, I was the Demon Alpha’s captive.

As Zain turned and leapt into the shadowed depths of the forest, carrying me away from the only safety I had known for weeks, I closed my eyes and let out a sob, clutching his bloody shirt.

The rushing wind whipped my hair across my face as Zain tore through the ancient forest. The speed was dizzying, a blur of dark green and shadowed gray, but within the cage of his arms, everything was terrifyingly still.

I could hear the frantic, heavy thudding of his heart against his ribs. I could smell the metallic tang of his blood from the shoulder wound where Maelra’s guard had ripped into him, mixing with his heavy scent of pine and dark, rain-soaked earth.

"Zain, put me down," I whispered, the words instantly stolen by the wind. I tried again, pressing my palms against his uninjured shoulder, pushing weakly. "Zain! Stop running. You’re bleeding."

He didn’t slow down. If anything, his grip tightened, his large hands locking me against his chest with a desperate, suffocating force.

"A scratch," he rasped, his voice sounding deeper, rougher, still entirely too close to the surface of his wolf. "They tasted my blood, Violet. They drew weapons on you. If I stop, I will go back and erase that entire camp from existence. Be still."

A shudder racked my frame. The raw authority in his voice would have made any other wolf cower, but it only made my hunter’s blood boil through the exhaustion.

"They were terrified!" I shouted over the rushing air, my voice cracking with a mixture of anger and grief. "Nora is dead, Zain! A little girl died last night under my watch, and before she did, she spoke a curse on our child! They aren’t evil, they’re desperate. And you just proved every single nightmare they’ve ever had about you!" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

His hand slid down from my waist, his splayed fingers pressing firmly over my stomach again. The sheer heat of his palm seemed to burn right through my clothes, sending a strange, electric pulse straight to my core.

The mate bond, entirely liberated from the numbing herbs now, flared with an overwhelming intensity. I could feel his absolute terror of losing me, his fierce, blinding joy at the child growing inside me, and a dark, swirling undercurrent of something ancient and hungry.

"You’re shaking," he murmured, his golden eyes finally lifting to meet mine. The wild, unrecognizing frenzy from the clearing was gone, replaced by a gaze so intensely focused it felt like he was looking directly into my soul. "Are you in pain? Did they hurt you before I arrived?"

"No," I breathed, my hands still resting against his chest, feeling the steady heat of him. "No, Zain. I’m just... tired. And everything is falling apart."

"Nothing is falling apart," he said with an unyielding finality, his jaw tightening. "You are with me. Our child is safe. We will return to the pack, and my healers will strip the rest of that foul poison from your blood."

"It wasn’t poison, it was an eclipse-root tincture," I snapped, deflating against him as the weight of the last twenty-four hours finally crushed my defenses. "I needed to think, Zain. I needed space. Ever since I found out... ever since I realized what I was carrying, all I could think about was my father. My sisters. If James finds out his daughter is carrying the heir to the Demon Alpha..."

"Let him come," Zain growled, his lips curling back slightly over his pointed canines. "I will give your father the war he has been begging for. I will line the borders of the Blackwood territory with the heads of his hunters if he dares step toward you."

"That is exactly what I’m afraid of!" I cried, tears finally stinging the corners of my eyes, though I refused to let them fall. I grabbed the lapels of his torn, bloody shirt, pulling him down slightly. "Look at me! I am a hunter. I was raised to kill you. My sisters want me dead because I failed that mission. My own people just attacked me because I’m tied to you. If you wage war on the human realms, you are forcing me to watch you slaughter my entire past."

"And that I will do if anybody even thinks of it."