4

The walls felt too close. The air, too thick. My skin crawled with the unbearable weight of hunger, fear, and something else—something I didn’t want to name.

I could still hear Lucian’s heartbeat.

Slow. Steady. Infuriatingly calm.

It was the only sound between us. He was waiting—watching me, his silver eyes unreadable. He had offered me his blood. Like it was nothing. Like he wasn’t disgusted by what I had become.

I wanted to tell him to stop looking at me like that, to stop acting as if he knew me—but the words stuck in my throat.

Because beneath my panic, beneath the horror curling inside me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The scent of his blood.

The heat of it under his skin.

The way his pulse had thrummed so steadily, so close, so alive.

I dug my nails into my palms, swallowing down the ache in my throat. I had to get out of here. Away from him. Away from this suffocating reality.

But before I could move—

The world shifted.

A whisper of sound.

A flicker of movement.

Lucian’s expression darkened. In a blink, he was in front of me, his body a solid wall between me and the door.

“Elle.” His voice was low, edged with something I didn’t understand. “We need to leave.”

My stomach clenched. “What?”

He didn’t answer. He was listening.

And then I heard it.

Footsteps.

Faint, but sharp. Precise. Getting closer.

Panic surged through me. “Who—”

Lucian moved. Fast. Before I could react, his hand closed around my wrist, pulling me forward.

“No time,” he muttered. “We need to move. Now.”

I wrenched my arm back. Too hard. The force sent me stumbling into the wall, my body too strong, too unfamiliar.

Lucian cursed under his breath. “You don’t understand what’s happening, do you?”

I glared at him, chest heaving. “You think?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “They’re here for you.”

The words landed like ice in my veins.

The golden-eyed man. The one who had called me Omega.

I sucked in a shaky breath. “How did they find me?”

Lucian didn’t hesitate. “They can smell you.”

My stomach twisted.

His grip tightened on my wrist—not painfully, just firm. “We need to go.”

I should have fought him. I should have resisted.

But I could hear them now.

More than one. Moving closer.

And the strangest part?

I could smell them, too.

A sharp, metallic tang. Something cold and ancient and wrong.

And just like that, I knew.

Lucian wasn’t lying.

They were hunting me.

He tugged me toward the door. “You have two choices. Stay and let them take you. Or trust me.”

Trust.

I didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust anyone.

But right now, I didn’t have a choice.

I clenched my jaw. “Fine.”

Lucian didn’t wait. He moved, pulling me behind him as we slipped out the back door and into the cold night air.

The Chase

The city was too bright, too loud. Every sound sharpened, the scent of hundreds of people overwhelming me. My senses were on overload.

Lucian didn’t slow. He led me through the alley, cutting left, then right, moving like he had done this a thousand times before.

I tried to keep up, but my legs felt strange. Stronger. Faster. Every step sent me surging forward too quickly, my body responding in ways I didn’t understand.

I almost crashed into him when he stopped suddenly.

His arm shot out, stopping me before I could stumble into the street.

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Why are we stopping?”

He didn’t answer.

His silver eyes flicked toward the end of the alley.

Then I saw them.

Three figures. Standing still. Waiting.

They were dressed in black, their faces hidden in the shadows. But I could feel them. Their energy—cold and oppressive, pressing against my skin like static.

Lucian exhaled through his nose. “Damn it.”

My heart pounded. “What do we do?”

A slow smile spread across his face. A sharp, wicked thing.

“We run.”

And then he moved.

Fast.

Too fast.

I had no time to process it—no time to think. His fingers curled around my wrist, and before I could argue, we were moving.

And I was keeping up.

The realization sent a jolt through me. I wasn’t just running. I was moving with a speed and precision that should have been impossible. My muscles burned with energy, my body adapting instinctively.

I was fast.

Too fast.

But so were they.

I could hear them behind us—chasing. Their footsteps were silent, but I could feel them closing in.

Lucian jerked me to the left, cutting down another alley. “Almost there.”

I had no idea where there was, but I didn’t care. I just knew I had to keep moving.

Then—

A blur of movement.

One of them appeared ahead of us, stepping out from the shadows too quickly to be human.

Lucian cursed.

I barely had time to react before he spun, yanking me with him. My body moved on instinct, feet shifting, weight adjusting, dodging with a precision that shouldn’t have been possible.

But my luck ran out.

A hand closed around my wrist.

A breath. A sharp, cold whisper against my ear.

“There you are.”

Panic exploded in my chest.

I yanked back—too hard.

The force sent me flying, twisting, my body reacting too fast, too strong.

Lucian moved like a shadow, grabbing me before I hit the ground.

And then—he struck.

It happened in an instant.

One second, the man was standing there. The next, Lucian was on him.

Fangs flashed. A low, deadly snarl ripped through the air.

And suddenly, the man was gone.

I gasped. “Did you just—”

Lucian grabbed my arm, pulling me forward. “Not now.”

I didn’t argue.

I just ran.

The city blurred around us, the streets twisting and turning, until finally—we stopped.

A building loomed ahead of us, old and crumbling. Lucian yanked open the rusted door, shoving me inside.

Then he turned, slamming it shut behind us.

Silence.

The only sound was my ragged breathing.

And then—Lucian exhaled.

“That,” he said, voice tight, “was too close.”

I pressed a hand against my chest, trying to steady myself.

But it didn’t help.

Because for the first time since this nightmare began—

I wasn’t just afraid of them.

I was afraid of me.