Chapter 4
rune
. . .
I’d been locked in this sterile fucking metal room for three days.
The hum of the IV pump had carved itself into my skull.
They’d been pumping me full of tourmalyke.
It was the only poison to everything supernatural that I wasn’t immediately immune to, but they hadn’t bothered with the Type II version yet.
It was liquid agony…at first.
The first day, I screamed until my throat bled out more venom that just hurt me. It was a miracle from the Fates that I hadn’t excreted a fatal toxin.
The second day, I had tremors, but I could control my venom again to stop it from leaking.
By the third day, I’d built an immunity to the poison. The shit that had crippled me now bled through my veins without effect.
I held my venom steady, and I could release it at will again.
The two things I couldn’t do were shift and feel my matebonds.
I was almost prepared to break myself out, but taking advantage of them giving me their poisons at will was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The silence pressed down on me, broken only by the IV’s rhythmic beep.
I wondered if they would dose me with anything better than this, though.
The door hissed open.
I slumped forward immediately, eyes half-lidded, as I let my heartbeat slow. I was getting too good at playing possum. The possum shifters were onto something. Besides, if anyone had earned the right to fake death as a coping mechanism, it was me.
My heart stuttered once before my blood ran cold.
Koa.
My potential mate stepped inside, his shadow pooling behind him as the door sealed with a sigh. The way he held himself was too calm. The ember flecks in his brown eyes were barely visible, probably because of the tourmalyke around us.
“What are you doing here?” My voice scraped out hoarsely.
My gaze flicked to the syringe in his pocket.
He didn’t answer right away. He just looked at me.
And Fates, that look of guilt cracked open my heart.
“They need some of your blood,” he said finally, voice flat.
My chest radiated with agony.
“They need—” I stopped.
My mind spun, connecting the dots.
Why else would he be here to get your blood, Rune?
“Koa…” My throat tightened until my voice came out like broken glass.
His jaw flexed as he closed his eyes and exhaled. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re working with them? But your dad…was that all a lie?”
He took the syringe from his pocket and threw it across the floor. “Fuck,” he croaked. “I’m so fucked.”
“Fucked?” The word dripped off my tongue, cold and razor-edged. My heart radiated with betrayal. “Yes. You are.”
I pulled my knees under me, ready to strike the man I thought could do no wrong.
Paralytic venom pulsed through my skin, seeping from my palm as he moved forward and sat beside me on the bed.
His hand trembled as it brushed the cuff around my wrist, and he popped it open.
The tourmalyke shackle fell open.
I frowned.
Koa leaned in, pressed a thumb to the IV port in my arm, and pulled the needle free.
My blood hit the floor in a single dark line before the wound healed.
I grabbed his throat, letting my venom seep into him.
He fell back on the floor, cracking his head on the polished concrete.
I followed him toward the ground and straddled him. “How dare you betray me like this!”
“I didn’t.” His body didn’t move, but his lips did. “Your mom had me go undercover so I could find evidence my dad wasn’t a traitor. That the humans framed him, and I did. I just blew my cover letting you go, but you need to go now.”
The world spun.
Betrayal and relief crashed together until my stomach twisted.
“You should’ve told me!” I seeped an antidote into him, but he was already moving up to sit.
He reached up, brushing the back of his fingers against my jaw.
The raw desperation behind his composure was clear.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should’ve told you. I just wanted to clear my dad’s name.”
“Shut up.” I caught his collar, dragged him to his feet, and pulled him down until his lips smashed against mine.
It wasn’t a sweet kiss.
It was desperate and furious and forgiving all at once, but the door hissed open again.
Koa turned, his back shielding me from view before I could even blink. A sharp sound split the air.
He jerked once. “Shit. I should’ve been killed instead.”
He fell forward into me.
I caught him, lowering us to the ground.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “Tranquilizer.”
Our magic flared between us and joined into a single thread that snapped tight before dimming again. The matebond between us finally snapped, but it was weak—barely there through the tourmalyke fog.
But it was real.
The humans stormed in with guns and shouts.
“They won’t kill me,” he rasped. “They’ll probably put me in a cell. You need to run.”
My magic roared through my veins as I carefully laid the now-sleeping Koa on the ground. I jumped up and touched all the guards I could with fatal venom before the fifth managed to inject me with Tourmalyke Type II.
It was the one I’d been waiting on them to inject me with so I could build immunity to it like I had with tourmalyke, but I wasn’t immune to it yet.
The world tilted, and I dropped to my knees, breath burning in my lungs as I lost control of my venom.
It paralyzed me.
My skull cracked against the ground and didn’t heal.
An annoying click of heels came through the door, and familiar blue eyes met mine. She smiled, and something cold slid down my spine.
“Aura?” I whispered.
Her laugh was soft yet overdramatic. “My real name is Allison, actually.”