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“Calla?” a voice whispered.

I whirled, but no one was there. The voice echoed in the recesses of my mind. My gut clenched. It was Grae’s voice.

“How?” I asked. How close was he that he could speak into my mind? As Wolves we used to test it, see how far we could go before that bond would snap. The last time I’d tried with him, it had only been the length of the Allesdale woods before his words grew so faint I couldn’t hear them anymore.

Now, I couldn’t smell or sense him in any other way. Had he followed me this far already?

“Thank the fucking Moon.” I could feel the relief in Grae’s voice rattle through me. “Are you okay?”

“How are you in my mind?” I began trotting back down the hillside, unsettled by this connection. Maybe he’d be able to use it to find me.

“You’re my mate,” Grae rumbled, his claiming words making a thrill run through me even as I ran from them. “Our Wolves are linked always.”

My heart sank. Even my Wolf wasn’t an escape anymore. I couldn’t pretend to leave it all behind with Grae still in my head.

“Where are you?” he asked.

So he didn’t know. Good. I raced faster back toward the inn, needing to get rid of him. I couldn’t go back.

“Don’t come after me.”

“Calla—”

“Don’t,” I snapped. “I’m going to fix this on my own. I’m gone, Grae.”

“Then let me go with you,” he pleaded, his voice edging on panic.

I leapt over a fallen log, hurdling downhill so fast I nearly stumbled even on my stealthy Wolf paws.

“No,” I said. “You are a prince. You have a duty to your pack—”

“Fuck my pack.”

I sucked in a breath at his reckless proclamation. No one said that. Ever. The pack was all that mattered. Individuals died, but the pack lived on, and now Grae and I both were flirting with that very dangerous line.

“You don’t mean that,” I said.

“I do,” he seethed. “I should’ve said it before. You’re mymate, Calla. Nothing else matters without you. If you die, I die. My life is your life. We are one now.”

The lights of the inn flickered through the dark forest. I was getting close. “You’ll drag me back to Highwick.”

“I’m not my father,” Grae gritted out. “I would never do that to you. To anyone.”

“Buthewill,” I insisted. “He will force your hand, Grae. You can’t help me and stay loyal to him. He is yourKing. He’ll kill us both for your disobedience.”

That was if I hadn’t signed our death sentence already by fleeing myself. I was meant to pledge my loyalty to King Nero that night, but I ran. If Grae came with me, he’d be picking sides. I’d take away his family, his pack, and ultimately his life.

I didn’t trust him in the moment, but I also couldn’t bear to think of him dead, either.

“Twenty years, little fox.” His voice filled with barely leashed restraint. I could feel him in every corner of my body, straining to control it. “I didn’t want the crown or the glory or any of it. There’s only one thing that ever mattered to me, and now I finally understand why.”

My chest heaved. I pictured his tortured expression, knowing exactly the crease of his forehead and slope of his eyebrows. Even in my defiance, I wished I could soothe away that torment.

But I couldn’t go back.

Olmdere lay in ruin under the wrath of a sorceress, and Briar lay alone in that tower. I couldn’t go back and live out my days as if she wasn’t there. I refused to walk by the stairwell that led to her room day in and day out until time and practice made me stop caring that she was there. I wouldn’t abandon her like that.

I spotted my discarded dress on the tree in front of me. My paw hovered in the air as I debated what to say. Tell him he always mattered to me, too? That would only spur him on. But I couldn’t lie to him, either.