The bank is muddy and steep. Trees crowd close on all sides. Their branches form a thick canopy overhead. The creek behind us rushes over rocks, loud enough to mask our voices but not loud enough to hide us forever. Downstream, I can see where the water curves out of sight around a bend. Upstream, nothing but forest and mist.
No signs of pursuit yet.
I look down and see blood. Bare feet, shoes lost somewhere in the rapids. Cuts everywhere, some shallow, some deep enough to expose raw flesh beneath. The pain hits a moment later, sharp and burning.
He crouches beside me without a word, already tearing strips from my soaked cloak. The fabric rips in his hands, loud in the morning quiet.
"We need to move fast," he says, wrapping the first strip around my left foot with quick, efficient movements. "Alpha will send trackers. They're probably already in the forest."
"I know." My teeth chatter so hard I can barely form words.
He pulls the bandage tight, making me wince. The pressure stops the worst of the bleeding. "The creek bought us maybe an hour. Two if we're lucky."
I don’t respond. Just watch him work, his hands stained with my blood.
"Why did you help me?"
The question comes sudden.
"What?" I ask.
"You freed me." He ties off the second bandage with a sharp tug. "Why?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes." He reaches for more fabric, tearing longer strips now. "You were Luna. Married to an Alpha. Safe. Protected. Respected. You gave that up to free a prisoner you'd spoken to once."
"Twice," I correct automatically.
"Twice, then." He starts fashioning something from the thicker pieces of cloak, folding and twisting the fabric into something resembling shoes. "Still doesn't explain why you'd risk execution for someone you don't know."
"You're not a stranger."
"No?" He glances up, one eyebrow raised, challenging. "What am I, then?"
The words stick in my throat. My mate. The bond the Moon Goddess forged. The connection that's been destroying me for three days. But saying it out loud makes it real in a way I'm not ready for.
"The bond was killing me," I say instead. "I couldn't breathe for three days. Couldn't eat. Couldn't sleep."
"That explains the pain." He fits one of the fabric shoes over my bandaged foot, testing the fit. "Not the choice. Plenty of wolves endure broken mate bonds. You could have waited it out. Let me die."
"There was no other way."
"There's always another way." He adjusts the shoe, adding more layers to reinforce it. "But you chose to betray your pack. Why?"
"Because I couldn't watch them kill you." The words come out sharper than I intend. "When they announced your execution, my wolf wouldn't let me rest. Is that what you want to hear?"
"I want the truth."
"That is the truth." I meet his gaze, refusing to look away. "The mate bond chose you. I don't understand it. I don't know you. I don't know anything about you except that you attacked my wedding and my wolf claims you as mine. But I couldn't ignore it anymore. I couldn't pretend it didn't exist just because it was inconvenient or dangerous or insane."
He studies me for a long moment. Then nods once. Fits the second shoe over my foot, securing it with careful knots. "Can you walk?"
I push myself up using the tree behind me for support. I take a few experimental steps. Pain shoots through my feet, but it's bearable. "Yes."
"Then we move. Now."
***
We run through the forest for hours. Trees blur together into endless green and brown. Branches whip my face, leaving stinging cuts. Every step sends fire through my feet despite the wrappings.
I stumble on a root hidden beneath dead leaves. His hand shoots out, iron-strong around my arm, keeping me upright. "Careful."
"I'm fine." I pull free and keep moving.
We continue in silence broken only by our ragged breathing and the snap of twigs underfoot. The sun climbs higher, filtering through the canopy in broken shafts of light that paint the forest floor in patches of gold.
Minutes bleed into each other. An hour passes. Then another. My legs begin to shake with exhaustion.
I stumble again, harder this time. My foot catches on a rock jutting from the ground. I pitch forward. He catches me before I hit the earth, both arms around me now, pulling me against his chest.
"I'm sorry," I gasp, my hands fisting in his shirt. "I can keep going. Just give me a second."
"I know you can." But he doesn't let go this time. His arm stays around my waist as we start moving again, supporting most of my weight. "We're close."
"Close to what?"
"Shelter. We can rest there."
By afternoon, my legs shake so badly I can barely lift my feet. The makeshift shoes are falling apart. Blood seeps through the bandages beneath. Each step leaves a red mark on the ground.
A rocky outcrop appears ahead through the trees. An overhang creates shelter beneath, partially hidden by thick brush.
"There." He guides me toward it.
Inside, the space opens up more than I expected. Dry. Protected. Hidden from anyone passing by unless they know to look.
I collapse against the stone wall. My feet throb with each heartbeat. I close my eyes, trying to catch my breath.
He moves immediately, no pause for rest. Gathering fallen branches and dry moss from the corners of the shelter. Within minutes, he builds a small fire. The smoke rises thin and dissipates through cracks in the rock ceiling above, invisible from outside.
I watch him work through half-closed eyes, this stranger who's somehow my mate. His movements are precise, economical, wasting no energy. A lifetime of survival etched into every action. He feeds twigs into the flames with careful hands, building the fire slowly so it won't smoke too much.
"I don't even know your name," I say finally.
He feeds another twig into the flames, coaxing them higher with patient attention. The firelight catches in his golden eyes, turning them almost amber. "Kieran. Last of the Bloodfang line."
The information is not new but the name hits me like cold water anyway. My entire body goes still. The exhaustion, the pain, everything fades for a moment.
"Bloodfang was destroyed fifteen years ago."
"I know." He looks at me directly across the fire, his gaze steady and unflinching. "I watched it burn."