Page 28 of The Alpha’s Runaway Mate (Evermore Hollow #1)

TWENTY-ONE

NOLAN

Jessica sleeps on my chest, her breath soft and warm against my skin. The cabin’s dark, quiet except for the faint hum of crickets outside and the slow rhythm of her breathing. I should feel peace. I should be able to close my eyes and rest with her. But I can’t.

My bear’s restless beneath the surface. He wants out. He wants blood. He wants the man who hurt our mate. And the more I lie here, the more I feel it too, that crawling tension that builds under my skin until I can almost taste the violence waiting for release.

I brush a hand down her back, slow and careful, tracing the curve of her spine.

She stirs a little but doesn’t wake. There’s a tiny frown between her brows, even in her sleep, and it kills me.

She shouldn’t have to live like this, watching shadows, jumping at every sound, waiting for the past to catch up.

I press my lips to her forehead, breathing her in. Vanilla, honey, a hint of pine from my sheets. She smells like home. My home. My reason. My fury.

I make a promise right there in the dark, one she’ll never have to hear to know I’ll keep.

I’m going to hunt that motherfucker down.

I’m going to find him and put him through every ounce of fear and pain he ever gave her.

He’s going to learn what it feels like to be hunted by something that doesn’t stop.

I ease her off my chest and tuck the blanket around her shoulders.

Daisy lifts her head from her spot beside the bed, those sharp eyes already tracking my movements.

“Watch over her, girl,” I whisper. “You don’t let anything touch her.

” Daisy’s tail thumps once, and that’s all the confirmation I need.

Before I go, I check every door and window.

Lock. Bolt. Ward. I double the barrier line along the porch and send a message through the bond to let the pack know I’m moving.

“Meet me at Snarl,” I send through the link to Mason, Xander, Declan, and Kolt.

The answering growls echo back through the connection, confirmation, loyalty, readiness.

Outside, the night is cool and still, but I can feel the tension in the air like static.

Two of my pack members are already posted near the house, their eyes glowing faintly in the dark.

They don’t speak when I pass, they just nod once in silent understanding. I return the nod and head for my truck.

When I slide behind the wheel, the engine rumbles to life, low and rough.

I glance back at the cabin, at the faint outline of Jessica sleeping in our bed, Daisy curled protectively at her side, and my chest tightens with something fierce and unyielding.

She’s mine. My mate. My reason for breathing. And he threatened her.

My knuckles whiten on the steering wheel. The beast inside me paces hard, scraping against the walls of my control. “You’ll get your turn,” I mutter under my breath. “We both will.”

By the time I hit the main road, my focus sharpens to a single point. Snarl. The bar where my pack waits. The place we start our hunt. The neon lights glow in the distance like blood on black water, and my bear growls low in approval.

This ends tonight. He came for her, but he won’t get the chance to try again.

I pull into the lot and cut the engine. It is the middle of the night and Snarl is closed. When I step inside, the bar smells like old smoke and cleaner. The room is half-lit and quiet, like a church for men who move at night.

My guys are at the bar. Kolt has a beer, bottle sweating in his hand.

Xander has a short glass of something dark that looks like it will bury the night's taste.

Mason rubs the rail with the same slow patience he has when he thinks.

Declan is a shadow at the far end, shoulders loose until he moves.

They nod when they see me. No fanfare. No questions asked.

I keep my voice even. “He did this on purpose.” No one argues.

Mason’s jaw ticks. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” I growl. “He wanted to be seen. Wanted her scared.”

Xander’s voice is low, tight. “Then we make him regret it.”

Declan stands, cracking his knuckles. “Say the word, Alpha.”

“This ends now,” I say. My words are iron. The decision’s already made.

The air shifts. The link snaps tighter. I feel the bear in all of them waking, the pulse, the growl, the need. Mason steps forward, voice steady in my head. We hunt.

I nod once. “We hunt.”

As soon as we’re outside the shift takes us fast. One heartbeat we’re men, the next we’re monsters built for war. Bones stretch, fur bursts through skin, claws rip through dirt. The forest tilts as senses explode, sound sharpens, scent flares, heartbeats thrum like distant drums.

The night belongs to us. We run. Paws hit the earth hard, five sets moving in perfect rhythm.

The world turns into streaks of shadow and moonlight.

Wind tears through my fur, the scent of wet pine and old asphalt flooding my lungs.

Beneath it, faint but distinct, is him, Ethan.

Sweat, whiskey, cheap soap, the sharp bite of fear he’s too arrogant to admit he feels.

Kolt growls through the link. He’s close.

Keep the line tight, Mason answers. No one breaks until Nolan calls it.

We push harder, faster, a wall of muscle and rage slicing through the trees. The town blurs by, empty streets, shuttered shops, the smell of oil and dust. Then the scent spikes, strong and sour. A motel on the edge of nowhere, its sign flickering, one room still lit.

I slow first, the others closing in behind me.

We shift back, human again, the night clinging to our skin.

Breath heaves, heat rolls off us. Mason wipes his mouth.

Kolt cracks his neck. Declan flexes his hands like he’s testing how far he can go before breaking bone.

We all get dressed in the clothes, from the duffel bag we brought them in.

“That’s him,” Xander mutters, staring at the window where a shadow moves inside.

“Then let’s say hi.” I grin, all teeth and promise.

We approach quiet and lethal, boots crunching the gravel. The night feels too still, like even the wind knows what’s coming. The scent of him leaks through the door, sweat, nerves, lies.

Mason takes the left. Kolt flanks the right. Declan checks the back. Xander waits for my nod. I give it.

Mason hits first, shoulder slamming the door. It cracks. Kolt drives it the rest of the way in, splintering wood and metal. The sound tears through the night, and the five of us flood inside.

The room reeks of beer and fear. Ethan stumbles back from the bed, hands up, eyes wide. “What the fuck?”

“Sit down,” I snap.

He doesn’t move fast enough, so Mason grabs him by the collar and throws him into a chair. The legs screech across the linoleum. Declan stands behind him, hands like steel on his shoulders. Kolt locks what’s left of the door behind us.

“You thought you could take her,” I say. My voice sounds wrong, too calm for what’s burning inside me. “You thought you could hurt her and walk away.”

Ethan’s lip curls, blood streaked across his teeth. “You’re the one screwing my wife,” he sneers, voice shaking but still laced with arrogance.

I laugh, low and cold. “She’s not your wife. Never was. You lost the right the day you laid a hand on her.” I step closer until he has to tilt his head back to keep eye contact. “Yeah, she’s mine now. And every time she looks at me, every breath she takes, she forgets you ever existed.”

Ethan spits at my feet, trembling. “You think you can just take her?”

“I didn’t take her,” I say, voice quiet enough to make him flinch. “She chose me. Because I’m everything you’ll never be, a man who protects what’s his instead of breaking it.”

His sneer fades when I grab his shirt and drag him upright. My voice drops to a growl. “She’s safe now, and you? You’re done.”

Ethan’s breath stutters. He tries to pull free, but my grip only tightens. “You don’t get it,” he spits. “She’s mine. She always will-”

“She’s nothing to you,” I cut in, my tone low enough to shake the walls.

“You had your chance. You turned her into something to control, not love. You made her afraid of her own shadow.” I shove him back into the wall hard enough to rattle the pictures hanging crooked above the bed. “I don’t do fear. I do consequences.”

He starts laughing, that broken, ugly sound men make when they finally realize they’re losing everything. “You think she loves you? You think she’s gonna stay? She’s just using you, same way she used me.”

Kolt moves fast. He slams Ethan across the face, the crack echoing through the room. “You don’t get to talk about her like that,” he snarls. “Not after what you did.”

Mason steps in closer, his eyes burning gold. “You want to know the difference between you and him?” He nods toward me. “You hurt her to feel powerful. He’d burn the world down to keep her breathing.”

Ethan spits blood, still trying to grin through it. “You’re animals.”

“Yeah,” I say, stepping close enough that he can feel the heat rolling off me. “And tonight, we hunted you.”

He swings wild, a weak, desperate punch that barely lands before I slam him back down to his knees. Declan’s there instantly, pressing a hand to Ethan’s shoulder to keep him down. “Stop trying,” Declan mutters. “You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

Ethan’s chest heaves. Sweat drips down his face. “You think this makes you better than me?” he gasps.

“No,” I tell him. “It just makes me done.”

He opens his mouth again, maybe to curse me, maybe to beg, but it doesn’t matter. The pack closes in. The air hums with that strange, electric energy that only comes before something final. I nod once.

It’s chaos and silence all at once, boots, fists, growls.

He cries out. He fights back. He loses. Time stretches, then collapses until there’s nothing left but the sound of our breathing and the heavy thud of his body hitting the floor.

I stare down at him. Blood on his lip, his eyes dull, every trace of arrogance gone.

There’s no satisfaction. No victory. Just an ending that needs to happen.

I crouch beside him, my voice a rough whisper. “She’s free now. And you’re nothing but a memory that dies here.”

“Get him up.” I growl. Xander and Kolt pick him up, standing him in front of me.

My hand shifts into my bear paw, my black claws are long and sharp.

I plunge my paw into his stomach and his eyes go wide.

He finally gets it. His life is over. I pull my paw up, shredding him on the way up until there is nothing left to recognize him.

Mason steps back first. “It’s done.”

Kolt nods once, wiping his hands on his jeans. Declan’s eyes flash with the last traces of the bear before fading. Xander keeps watch at the window, scanning the dark for headlights, sirens, anything.

I straighten slowly, my body still humming with the beast beneath my skin. The room smells like sweat, iron, and justice. My knuckles ache, but I don’t care. I look at the others. “We clean up and leave. No trace. No noise.”

They move without hesitation. Efficient. Silent. The way only a pack can. We cover our tracks, slip back into the night, and disappear into the trees where no one will ever find what we left behind.

When the truck finally rolls up the ridge road, the sky is starting to gray at the edges. My hands are still stained, my heartbeat still heavy.