Chapter 25-Rosalind
The night is pitch-black out here—no moonlight, no road noise, no comforting hum of civilization. Just trees. Endless trees.
This makeshift camp sits far off the beaten path, buried deep in forest that even Barvale Bears don’t frequent.
I don’t know what time it is.
Hell—I don’t even know what day it is.
The first slap cracks across my face, sharp and loud in the cold night air.
“Repeat your vows,” Landon snarls. “That’s an order.”
My head snaps to the side. White flashes burst behind my eyes.
He backhands me again before I can recover.
Warm blood spills from my nose, dripping down my lip and splattering onto the dirt beneath my bare feet.
I taste iron. I swallow it down and lift my chin, anyway.
The two other males have me pinned upright.
My arms ache where heavy metal shackles bite into my wrists and ankles—cold, crude chains meant to humiliate as much as restrain.
The tarp they wrapped me in is gone now, ripped away like it never mattered.
If my Bear were at full strength, I could break these.
I know I could.
But they’ve kept me drugged.
No food. No water. Nothing to help my body burn the poison out.
Every movement feels slow, like I’m fighting through mud.
Still—adrenaline is a hell of a thing. Fear, too.
But I swear, if this bastard hits me again.
“Repeat them!” Landon bellows, spit flying. “You will obey me. You will bear me cubs. You will be the first female of the New Willow Creek Clan—under me, Alpha Landon Bennett!”
I laugh.
It’s broken and hoarse and hurts like hell—but it’s real.
“You’re no Alpha. You’re a coward,” I snarl back, drawing on the last scraps of my strength. “Weak. A pitiful excuse for a male. And I would rather die than belong to you.”
I spit in his face.
That’s when the two idiots holding me start to panic.
Because Landon doesn’t just rage.
He shifts.
Bones crack. His body bulks unnaturally, the change jagged and slow—wrong.
Proof of a poisoned mind and corrupted blood.
He doesn’t care who’s in his way.
“Landon—no!” one of his own soldiers yells.
Too late.
A massive Grizzly Bear explodes out of him, and one of the men screams his name and is crushed beneath those claws like he’s nothing.
The other drops me and scrambles back in terror.
I hit the ground hard, the breath knocked from my lungs.
Pain explodes through my leg as Landon swipes again, catching me with the edge of his claws.
I scream.
I call to my Bear with everything I have left.
Please. Please come to me.
She stirs. She fights.
But the drugs drag her down, heavy and relentless.
Landon looms over me, massive and unstoppable, and I have one clear thought as darkness presses in from the edges of my vision—Honor.
I’m sorry, Honor, sorry I didn’t get to make it up to you.
I don’t want to die.
But I will not live as this monster’s breeding sow.
Death would be kinder.
But it doesn’t come.
Instead—a thunderous impact slams into Landon from the side.
A huge black Bear—gleaming in the firelight, light markings blazing across his face like starlight—hits him like a living weapon and rips him away from me.
Honor.
The fight that follows is brutal and fast. I barely register it through the haze—only flashes.
Miles’s Bear tearing into one of the remaining males.
Daniel Devlin checking the other with ruthless efficiency.
Marcus at my side, hands gentle as he breaks my shackles and pulls me free from the shackles on my hands and feet and helps me to stand.
And Honor.
My Honor.
Honor takes Landon down, ruthlessly ripping his throat out, staining his fur with that bastard’s blood.
When it’s over, when the forest finally goes still again, I see him shift and stand over the fallen Grizzly, chest heaving, blood steaming in the cold air.
He lifts his head.
Our eyes meet.
Good mate, my Bear whispers, weak but proud, her voice flickering inside me like a candle in the dark.
And for the first time since I woke up in that filthy tarp—I feel safe.
“Rosie,” Honor breathes, voice hoarse and full of something I don’t know how to name.
His eyes are glowing, gold and wild, his Bear staring back at me through them.
“Rosie,” he says again, like my name is the only thing keeping him upright.
He stumbles toward me, blood streaking his skin, dirt and ash clinging to his arms and shoulders.
He’s naked—like me, like all of us since you can’t Shift and keep your clothes on—and that mark I gave him at his pulse is glowing, raw and red.
The claiming bite.
My claiming bite.
His hands twitch like he’s afraid to touch me. Like I’ll shatter if he does.
But I don’t hesitate.
I fall forward, collapsing into him with a choked sob.
Because if he’s here—if Honor is here and alive and real, if he’s looking at me like I’m the best thing he’s ever seen—then I don’t care about anything else.
Not the pain. Not the fear. Not the blood on my skin or the bone-deep ache in my leg.
I just need him.
I bury my face in his chest as his arms come around me—fast, tight, like he’ll never let me go again.
One arm slides under my legs, and then I’m airborne, held close to his chest as he turns his body to shield me completely.
“Fuck, Sunshine, you’re okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe now,” he murmurs over and over, voice shaking.
He smells like forest and fur and Honor.
And I’ve never loved a scent more.
“You came for me,” I whisper, my voice breaking.
“I’ll always come for you,” he says, fierce and low. “I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t know—I didn’t understand what I was. What you were to me. I thought I was gonna hurt you. But it was never a rejection, Rosie. It was never your fault. You’re mine. My mate.”
I cry then.
Ugly, gasping sobs that tear out of me like a dam breaking.
He doesn’t flinch. He holds me tighter.
Behind us, the sounds of movement pick up—low voices, rustling trees, the others cleaning up the aftermath. But none of that touches me.
Not when Honor is here.
Not when his heartbeat is steady beneath my cheek.
Not when he presses his lips to my forehead, then my temple, then down the side of my face with aching reverence.
“I’m taking you home, Mate,” he says, voice ragged.
And I want to go with him. I want to be with him forever.
Because this—this is what mates are made for.
I clutch his shoulders and lean into his warmth as he carries me through the trees, the forest swallowing us back into the dark.
But this time, I’m not afraid.
Because the dark isn’t empty anymore.
It’s me inside the protective warmth of Honor’s embrace. It’s us.
And we’re going home.