Page 37

With trembling hands, she unknotted the ties. The pale robe slipped from her shoulders, sliding down her arms like water before pooling at her feet. Achill licked over her exposed skin, leaving her completely bare under the shifting dawn light.

Her skin was marked only by subtle bruises and flushed impressions left by Riv’En’s hands and mouth.

Marks she wore with quiet pride, not as weakness but as a testament to the force of what existed between them.

They weren’t blemishes. They were proof that even now, in the heart of a world that wasn’t hers, she belonged to something fierce and real. Marks of passion.

She bore them without shame, aquiet heat rising beneath her skin at the thought. They were proof of what they had shared. Nothing else to shield her, nothing else to hide behind.

The gathered warriors watched in silence, their expressions impassive as stone.

Acold awareness pressed against the back of Maya’s neck, the suffocating stillness wrapping around her like an invisible net.

Her skin prickled under their gaze, ashiver crawling down her spine despite the warmth of the dawn light.

Even the women at the edges didn’t speak.

This was ritual. Tradition. And it was about to begin.

Vaeyra’s voice cut through again. “Step to the edge. When I give the signal, you will run. The Bonding Chase commences from that moment.”

Maya swallowed hard, fighting the urge to look back once more. But she stepped forward, feet bare against the cold stone, until she stood at the platform’s edge. Beyond, the forest loomed. Darker than she’d imagined. Shifting with light and shadow.

She barely registered the sudden blur of movement behindher.

A sickening crack echoed through the courtyard. She whipped her head around just in time to see Riv’En drop to one knee. The challenger’s fist was still extended, afaint shimmer rippling around his knuckles from the force of theblow.

“No!” Maya’s voice ripped from her throat before she could stopit.

Brotha didn’t even glance at Riv’En. His silver gaze locked onto hers instead, aslow grin pulling across his sharp features. “You are mine, little human,” he called, voice a low growl that vibrated through the air itself.

Maya staggered back, her stomach twisting. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Riv’En—

“Run!” Vaeyra’s command cracked through the tension like lightning.

Maya didn’t think. Her body moved on instinct. She turned and bolted off the platform, bare feet slapping against stone, then grass, then soil. The forest swallowed her in seconds.

Branches clawed at her arms. Leaves brushed her face, slick and cold. The ground wasn’t smooth. Roots jutted up beneath her feet, catching at her steps. She pushed harder, lungs burning, heart hammering a savage rhythm in her chest.

Somewhere behind her, she heard it. Not words.

Not footsteps. Apresence, vast and implacable, bearing down on her like a living force.

The challenger moved through the trees with terrifying ease, each step breaking branches that should have snapped back to wound or trap.

The underbrush shredded beneath him, leaves and twigs scattering in his wake as though the forest itself parted for him.

No stealth. No hesitation. Just relentless pursuit.

The trees weren’t like Earth’s forests. Their trunks shimmered with faint bands of color, pulsing gently with inner light. Leaves glowed in shades of blue and green, casting eerie shadows across the ground. Mist slithered between roots, curling around Maya’s ankles as sheran.

Her lungs burned, each inhale harsh and tearing, as if she were breathing through smoke.

Each step dragged like her legs had turned to stone, muscles burning with effort.

Her heartbeat pounded like thunder, arelentless throb that swallowed every sound except the slap of her bare feet against the ground.

A flicker of movement caught her eye. Too close.

Maya threw herself sideways, stumbling behind a thick trunk. Her back hit bark hard enough to bruise. She pressed herself flat against the wood, biting back a cry as pain lanced up herside.

Silence.

The challenger’s voice slithered through the trees, threatening and dangerous as poisoned mist. “You cannot hide from me,” he growled, the words curling around her like claws closing in.

“These woods are in my bones, stitched into the very fabric of my being.” His voice stretched and echoed unnaturally, as though the forest itself spoke through him, turning the shadows into something alive and waiting.

Maya’s pulse hammered in her throat, the trees closing in tighter with every syllable.

Her throat closed around a sob. The image of Riv’En dropping to one knee replayed behind her eyes, sharp and unrelenting.

She wasn’t just afraid. She was furious.

If she gave in now, if she made a sound, it would betray both of them.

She clenched her fists, nails biting into her palms. Think.

Breathe. Camouflage. She knew how. She just had to remember that she did it before with Riv’En.

A whisper of silver light flickered over her skin, an echo of the camouflage she’d used against Riv’En on Earth.

The shimmer wavered like heat off stone, fading almost as quickly as it appeared.

Her heart was hammering too hard, her breath tearing too fast to curb.

She closed her eyes, forcing her thoughts to slow, willing her mind back to the memory of Riv’En’s voice, the quiet command that had steadied her before.

But the light remained faint, unstable, flickering and sputtering as her fear overwhelmed the fragile tether to hergift.

A sudden crash came to her right, like a tree trunk splintering under impossible force.

Forceful footsteps thundered against the earth, shaking the ground beneath her feet.

Ablur of dark skin and silver markings streaked past her hiding place, close enough to stir the mist in its wake.

The challenger moved with terrifying speed and mass, not a man so much as a living storm tearing through the undergrowth, each step splitting branches and gouging deep scars into thesoil.

Maya spun away from the tree, bolting deeper into the woods. Her bare feet slipped on slick leaves. The terrain dropped suddenly—asteep embankment. She skidded down it, arms flailing, dirt and stone tearing at herlegs.

Her breath stuttered, catching halfway in her throat as if the air itself had thickened to ice.

Her vision blurred, colors bleeding into one another until the glowing trees and shifting shadows became an indistinguishable haze.

Her pulse hammered violently, like a second heartbeat in her skull, wild and frantic, each beat a warning bell screaming through her entire body.

Each beat giving away her position and helping Brotha findher.

Then—

Silence again.

She collapsed behind another tree, dragging in ragged, burning gulps of air. Her limbs trembled. Her entire body screamed forrest.

And then—he was there.

Brotha’s hand clamped around her arm before she could make it another step.

His grip was iron, unshakable, radiating heat and pressure like molten steel.

Maya gasped, twisting frantically, but there was no give in his hold.

His fingers wrapped fully around her upper arm, cutting off motion as if she were no more than a sapling snapped in a storm.

Every muscle in her body fought to break free, her skin prickling with cold and fire all at once, but it was like being caught by the trunk of a tree—immovable, absolute.

His silver eyes glinted down at her, mouth pulling into a slow grin that sent ice down her spine.

“Such a disappointment,” he murmured, voice pitched low, as if savoring every word.

“Too easy. Far too easy. Where is the thrill in that?” His fingers flexed once, holding her in place just long enough to make sure she understood.

Then he released her, shoving her backward with casual force. Maya stumbled, catching herself against a low branch, breath burning in her throat. Her heart slammed against herribs.

“Run, pathetic human. Make it fun for me.”

She didn’t hesitate. She took off, only this time, she didn’t just run blindly. Her mind snapped into focus.

If she wanted to escape him, she couldn’t rely on speed alone. Brotha knew these woods too well. He moved like he belonged here. She couldn’t outrun that. But she could out-thinkit.

Maya gathered herself. One slow breath. Her pulse steadied by sheer will. She called up the shimmer again, the faint multi-color camouflage flickering over her skin. This time, she made it stick.

She turned and vanished into the trees.

Her steps fell silent, her path sure and clear. Every step placed carefully. Her feet found quieter ground, smooth patches of moss, soft earth that didn’t betray herpath.

She weaved between glowing trunks, slipping into the deeper shadows, matching each cadence of color. She ducked low beneath hanging vines, angled herself behind natural cover. Her breath was slow now, silent, her body moving like water around obstacles.

Brotha’s voice echoed somewhere behind her, growing sharper now. “You can run, little human, but I am coming.”

Maya didn’t answer. Didn’t make a sound. She pressed closer to the bark of a wide, shimmering tree, letting the bands of light ripple over her skin and hide her completely.