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While Luka put packs together, Theon tossed the blanket from Tessa’s bed to the ground for Kacela and Rigel to get her scent. She wouldn’t be needing the blanket anytime soon. She wouldn’t be leaving his sight again until he was confident the bond was in place, and she was fully under his control.

Luka returned, tossing him a pack, and Theon moved to his favorite of his four horses, Osiris. They were giant black stallions named after some of Sargon’s most famed warriors. Theon had searched tirelessly to find the horses and spent countless hours training them to his exact specifications. He mounted Osiris with ease while Luka pulled himself up into Zale’s saddle.

“Ready?” Theon asked, moving Osiris’s reins to one hand. The horse stamped his hoof and pawed at the ground, clearly ready to run. Kacela and Rigel were prancing around the horses, whimpering and restless with the excitement of the hunt.

“What are you going to do when you find her?” Luka asked, getting settled into his own saddle.

“I’ve been giving her space and time to adjust, but this is the second time she’s run from me,” Theon said, urging Osiris to walk from the stables. “And it will be the last.”

He needed to bring the female to heel. Her wildness might intrigue him, but this was taking it too far. She could push him away and fight with him all she wanted in their private quarters, but not in public. Not in front of his father. She needed to accept her fate. Not only because his father would require it, but because Theon’s own plans required her cooperation. He needed her willing to let him feed on her strength and power. When the time came, he couldn’t be focused on forcing her to give it to him.

Tessa saw him as a merciless descendant of the gods who wanted to possess her and rule her, so that’s what he would become.

He’d tried to ease her into her role, thinking it would build trust faster. But in doing so, he’d clearly given her the illusion that he wasn’t in control of everything. That he wasn’t in control of her. She’d learn why the Arius Kingdom was whispered about.

He’d become the nightmare she already thought he was.

11

TESSA

The sun had been high in the sky when she’d crept over the balcony railing and sidled along that narrow ledge to the trellis of climbing ivy. She’d prayed to anyone but the gods that it would hold her weight when she gingerly tested it and breathed out a sigh of relief as she shimmied down.

The wards had pressed along her skin, and these were strong. Some wards she could feel, but more in a she-knew-they-were-there sort of way. Few actually pressed to keep her out. Or in this case, keep her in. Weaker wards she didn’t feel at all. Which is why she so often found herself in trouble for being in places she wasn’t supposed to be as a child.

She’d never figured out how she could evade them. It was something she had just always been able to do. It had taken her a long time to figure out what was happening though, and by the time she fully understood it, she’d also long-since figured out how to sneak about without getting caught. Her ability to avoid the wards extended to whoever was with her, as long as they were touching. It was one of the things she never spoke of. One of the things they’d helped her keep hidden. If she was caught, Theon would question how she evaded the wards.

So she wouldn’t get caught.

Theon’s suite overlooked the gardens along the back of the vast estate. Knowing there was no way she’d make it past the guards at the front gates, she’d gone the only way she could go—into the forest that climbed up the mountainside. Their property couldn’t go forever, right? Admittedly, she had not thought this plan through entirely. She rarely did. Usually there were others with her when things inevitably went to shit, but she could do this. She’d find her way to a road eventually, and then…

Well, she excelled at figuring things out in the moment. This wouldn’t be any different, she supposed.

She’d waited until after Axel had checked on her. She’d heard him creep into Theon’s room to make sure she was still…what? There? Breathing? Alive? Probably all three. He’d tried talking to her, but she’d ignored him just like she had Theon. As soon as Axel had gone back out to his video game though, she’d gotten out of bed. She’d already changed into jeans, a thermal, and sneakers so all she’d had to do was tie her sweatshirt around her waist and grab the small bag she’d found in the closet. She’d stuffed it with a couple bottles of water, an apple, cheese, and a bag of nuts she’d taken from the kitchen. That was all the small bag could hold. She likely wouldn’t have been able to carry anything else down the trellis or through the woods.

The sun was setting, and she paused to untie her sweatshirt and slip it over her head. She hadn’t taken into account how quickly the temperature would drop or how she would stay warm tonight. Where was she even going to sleep? She could find a cave or something, maybe?

What if there were bears in the cave? Or something worse? There were rumors of all manner of creatures in the Ozul Mountains. Creatures that could fly…

Tessa pushed those thoughts from her mind as she kept moving. She’d go until she couldn’t see anymore, getting as far away from Arius House as she possibly could and figure the rest out as she went. She didn’t really have much of a choice. She worked better under pressure anyway.

Her stomach grumbled loudly, and she sighed, reaching into the small crossbody bag and tugging out the apple to eat while she continued moving. She hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before. Another thing she really should have thought about before climbing down a three-story drop. She glanced at her muddy sneakers. Boots of some sort would have probably been a good idea too.

But she hadn’t been thinking. Her entire focus had been on getting out, getting away. Her entire world had revolved around that one goal. Nothing else had mattered. She couldn’t think about anything else, too numb to really care. One step at a time. That’s all she could do. And each step she took away from that house was her reaching that goal.

And gods. To be outside. Not cooped up in a set of rooms, but out in the open. No rules. No boundaries. Nothing to keep her contained. Space to breathe.

Each step also sent a resounding jolt through her limbs as the Source bond protested loudly, reminding her this still wasn’t true freedom. It begged her to turn around and go back to Theon. It made her long for his touch and so much more. It pressed at her, pleading with her to give in, to serve him, to do everything in her power to please him. She gritted her teeth against the pain she’d grown used to as she’d run and eventually slowed to a walk. She’d become numb to that too eventually. At least she hoped she would.

The sounds of the woods as she’d made her way over logs and through muddy patches had become soothing. Animals rustled and insects buzzed. She tried to keep her mind busy as the sun sank lower.

Until she heard howling.

She couldn’t ignore that.

Those were wolves.

Tessa picked up her pace, her legs burning at the nonstop incline. Maybe she could get out of their range? But as she worked into a jog, the howling got closer. Along with barks and snarls.