Chapter 5
* * *
Candy stretched her arms, rolling her shoulders as she walked down the quiet hallway of the estate. The night was still, thick with tension after hours of waiting for news. She wasn’t the type to sit still, to let anxiety chew at her insides without doing something—anything.
But Aeolus had convinced her to rest, just for a little while.
She hadn’t made it back to their room before everything went wrong.
A hand shot out from the darkness, gripping her arm too tightly.
Candy gasped, twisting immediately, but the grip was unforgiving. A voice—low, steady, familiar—sent a chill down her spine.
“Don’t fight, Candy.”
She froze.
She knew that voice.
Jonas.
One of their own. A wolf from the Stavros pack.
Her stomach turned.
She had trusted him. Aeolus had trusted him.
“Let me go,” she hissed, her voice sharper than steel. She pushed at his arm, but he held firm, too strong, too prepared.
His dark eyes flicked down to her, his expression unreadable. “I can’t do that.”
Candy’s breath quickened.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Then she felt it—the intent.
Jonas wasn’t just restraining her. He was trying to take her.
Ice crawled down her spine.
He was betraying them.
Candy opened her mouth to scream, to do something—
And then, in a flash, the world shifted.
A deep, guttural growl ripped through the hallway, raw and deadly.
Jonas barely had time to turn before a blur of furious muscle and rage slammed into him.
Aeolus.
He hit Jonas like a wrecking ball, his massive body crushing him against the wall. Candy stumbled back, heart hammering as Jonas let out a sharp, pained snarl.
“You fucking traitor,” Aeolus snarled, his voice vibrating with lethal fury.
Jonas struggled, but Aeolus had him by the throat, his grip unyielding.
“You were one of us,” Aeolus growled, his wolf barely contained, his blue eyes glowing in the dim light. “You swore loyalty. And now you try to take what’s mine?”
Jonas’s face turned red, his fingers clawing at Aeolus’s hand, but there was no mercy here.
Aeolus’s gaze flicked toward Candy. “Did he hurt you?”
She swallowed, shaking her head. “No. But he was trying to take me.”
That was all it took.
Aeolus’s fist collided with Jonas’s jaw, a sickening crack echoing through the hall. Jonas crumpled to the ground, gasping, blood dripping from his lip.
Aeolus loomed over him, his breath heavy, controlled rage simmering beneath the surface. “Who do you work for?”
Jonas didn’t answer.
Aeolus knelt, his voice dropping to something dark, deadly. “I’ll only ask once.”
Jonas’s lip curled, blood dripping from his mouth. And then he did the stupidest thing he could have done.
He smirked.
Aeolus moved too fast for Candy to see. One second, Jonas was on the ground—the next, Aeolus had him pinned to the wall again, a clawed hand pressed against his throat.
“I should kill you,” Aeolus growled, his voice laced with something feral.
Jonas choked on a laugh. “He’ll come for her anyway.”
Aeolus went still.
Candy’s blood ran cold.
Her stalker.
This wasn’t a random betrayal. This was a message.
Aeolus’s grip tightened, his wolf demanding blood, demanding that he end this here and now.
But then his gaze flicked to Candy—her face pale, her breathing uneven, the fear she was trying so hard to hide.
And just like that, the decision was made.
They couldn’t stay here.
They couldn’t trust anyone but his brothers.
Candy saw it the second Aeolus came to his conclusion—the cold, calculated resolve in his blue eyes.
“Pack a bag,” he told her, his voice absolute.
Candy blinked. “What?”
“We’re leaving.”
Jonas let out a rough laugh. “You think you can outrun him?”
Aeolus turned back to him, his gaze pure ice.
“I don’t need to outrun him,” he said smoothly. “I just need to find him first.”
Then, without another glance, he drove his fist into Jonas’s skull, knocking him out cold.
Candy stared, breathless, her pulse pounding in her ears. “Aeolus—”
His hands were already on her, checking her, running down her arms, his touch possessive, protective. “I won’t risk you. Not for a second.”
She swallowed hard. “But your enforcers—”
“I don’t trust them,” he said, his voice hard with certainty. “Not anymore. Not with you.”
She hesitated, and his grip tightened. “You trust me?”
Candy exhaled. “Of course.”
“Then come with me.”
There was no more argument.
Candy turned and ran to grab a bag.
Aeolus didn’t look back as he lifted Jonas’s unconscious body and locked him in one of the estate’s reinforced rooms. He wasn’t dead—not yet.
He still had faith in Nikos. He planned to let him deal with Jonas, they needed to know everything about the man who sent him.
By the time he returned, Candy was waiting, a small bag slung over her shoulder.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded. “Always.”
And with that, Aeolus took her hand, led her out into the night, and disappeared into the darkness.
They would return when this was over.
When her stalker was dead.
* * *
The dim glow of candlelight flickered against the stone walls, casting long, jagged shadows over the ruin at his feet. The scent of death clung to the air—thick, metallic, sickly sweet.
Elias Dragovic stood motionless, staring down at the mangled remains of the werewolf who had dared waste his time.
The fool had run straight to him after being discovered, thinking—praying—that Elias would reward him for his cowardice.
Instead, Elias had ripped out his throat.
A slow, serpentine smile curled his lips as he stepped forward, his boots sinking into the still-warm blood pooling across the floor.
His long fingers twitched at his sides, an itch crawling beneath his skin. Impatience. Hunger. The need to claim what was his.
Candy Laurent.
He whispered her name under his breath, tasting it, reveling in it, letting it curl around his tongue like a prayer.
His bride.
The soul meant for him.
The one the universe had stolen lifetimes ago.
And this time, he wouldn’t be denied.
For years, he had played this game, allowing her to think she was free, allowing her to move from city to city, clinging to her younger sister as if she could protect her.
It had amused him, at first.
Watching her hide, watching her seek sanctuary among the wolves, watching her cower under the illusion of safety.
But that amusement had long since rotted away into something else.
Obsession. Need. Chaos.
Elias let out a low, giddy laugh, raking a bloodstained hand through his midnight-black hair.
The Stavros wolves thought they could keep her?
The Stavros.
Royalty in the supernatural world. Respected. Feared. Untouchable.
The council would call him mad for challenging them. Would demand his head for defying them.
He didn’t care.
None of it mattered anymore.
Not their rules.
Not the balance of power.
Not the consequences that would ripple through the supernatural world if he took what was his by force.
Nothing mattered but Candy.
She was his, and if the world burned for it?
Then let it burn.
He turned toward the ancient oak desk, his red eyes gleaming like fresh blood in the candlelight.
A single photograph rested on its surface.
Candy’s face stared back at him—defiant, beautiful, untouchable.
He reached out, his fingers trembling as he traced the image.
“You run,” he murmured, voice lilting with madness. “You hide. You fight.”
A slow, manic grin split his face.
“But you were made for me, little siren.”
His hand tightened, crumpling the photograph in his grip.
“No one—no one—keeps you from me.”
His shoulders shook with a wild, guttural laugh, one that echoed through the empty chamber, bouncing off the stone walls, sending the remaining candles flickering wildly.
Then, just as suddenly, the laughter stopped.
His crimson eyes turned toward the darkness beyond the chamber doors.
He had wasted enough time.
It was time to claim his bride.
* * *
The neon Open sign flickered above the glass storefront, casting a faint glow over the otherwise darkened parking lot. The camping store was nearly deserted—just an older man at the counter and rows of rugged, outdoor gear waiting for someone to need them.
Candy stood with her arms crossed, watching as Aeolus moved through the store like a man on a mission.
“You know,” she said, smirking as he tossed a bundle of rope into the basket, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were kidnapping me.”
Aeolus barely spared her a glance, his blue eyes flickering with amusement as he grabbed a pack of water filters and a hunting knife.
“Not kidnapping,” he murmured. “Just making sure you survive.”
Candy arched a brow. “So dramatic.”
Aeolus gave her a look, stepping closer, his broad frame towering over her in the narrow aisle. “Dramatic would be not buying the right gear and watching you freeze your ass off in the mountains.”
Candy’s smirk widened. “Maybe I like the cold.”
Aeolus grinned, sharp and knowing. “You won’t when I’m the only thing keeping you warm.”
Her breath caught for just a second.
Damn him.
She narrowed her eyes. “That sounds a lot like flirting.”
He leaned in, his breath ghosting over her skin. “It wasn’t.”
A shiver ran down her spine, but not from the cold.
Before she could respond, he was already moving again, tossing a heavy-duty sleeping bag into the cart.
Candy rolled her eyes, muttering, “Great. I finally find a man who knows how to prepare for the apocalypse, and he’s dragging me into the woods.”
Aeolus smirked. “You’re welcome.”
The drive into Northern California’s wilderness took hours.
By the time they reached the dense forest, the sky had turned a deep, endless navy, the stars flickering above the treetops like tiny scattered diamonds.
Candy stretched as she stepped out of the truck, inhaling the crisp, woodsy scent of pine and damp earth.
Aeolus was already unloading their supplies, moving with effortless efficiency as he set up a small fire pit and laid out the gear.
She wrapped her arms around herself, tilting her head. “So, do you just know the perfect places to hide women in the woods, or should I be worried?”