Chapter 368: His Hunt Begins
Damian:
I ran.
Not because I was afraid of being caught, though the men of the Rogue Alphas had been sniffing around for me for weeks now.
I ran because my heart was pounding in a way it hadn’t in nearly a year. My lungs burned, my legs ached, but I didn’t slow down. Not when my mother’s words were still ringing in my ears.
"Someone came looking... asking questions about her."
Evaline.
Her name had been a ghost in our lives for this past one year. Forbidden. Buried. A memory that only I had clung to in my own twisted, ruined way. My mother spat it like venom, my sister rolled her eyes in disgust whenever it surfaced. But when I heard it again... spoken in a trembling whisper as my mother recounted the visit... I knew.
She was alive.
Why else would anyone ask? Dead girls don’t inspire strangers to come searching.
For months, I had thought it was over. That the night of the Shadowfang Pack’s ruin, and her death, was the final thread cut between us. But the moment I heard her name, something inside me snapped back into place.
Alive. My little sister was alive. Somewhere out there, breathing the same air, walking under the same sky. And if she was alive, then she was still mine.
A laugh tore out of me, wild and sharp, startling my mother until she slapped me across the face. "Don’t you dare think about her ever again!" she hissed, her eyes flashing.
But I wasn’t listening. My pulse was roaring too loudly in my ears. I could see her - her pale face, her beautiful amber eyes wide with fear, her body curling away from me. She had always been mine, whether she accepted it or not. And I had been denied her for too long.
I shoved a bag together that same night. Clothes, cash I stole from the warriors, a stolen kitchen knife. My mother shouted after me, my sister sneered, but I didn’t stop. They weren’t important. Not anymore. The only thing that mattered was finding her.
I had no trail. No scent. No clue. But I had determination, and that was enough. I would scour every damn corner of this cursed land until I found her. And I knew exactly where to start.
Ethan Blackwood.
The bastard who had once been her friend. My lip curled as I thought of him. He had tossed her aside like trash, humiliated her in front of everyone... just like I asked him to do.
Ethan had exactly what I needed to find Evaline - power, resources, and money. If anyone could help me find her, it was him.
And besides, I needed a hiding place. It was two days after I ran away from that village when I came across a group of warriors who turned out to be hunting me for reasons I still didn’t fully understand.
Were they chasing me because I had ran away from the village where I was exiled as a slave?
I didn’t care. I was never going to return to that place.
The forest thinned, giving way to the faint glow of lanterns in the distance. Blackwood territory. My chest tightened. Memories pressed against my skull - of following Eva through these woods when we were children, of yanking her hair and mocking her until she cried, of cornering her against a tree and whispering things in her ear that made her tremble.
She had hated me for it.
But hate was still a kind of bond, wasn’t it? Stronger than indifference. Strong enough to make her think of me, even when she wanted to forget.
I smiled, though it didn’t reach my eyes. She could try to run, but she would never escape me. Not really.
My pace slowed as I approached the outskirts of Blackwood land. I pulled the hood of my cloak higher, keeping my face shadowed. Patrols passed nearby, their voices carrying in the night, but none of them noticed me. I was good at this, at being invisible when I wanted to be.
Ethan would help me. He would have to. Not because he cared for Eva, he never had, but because I knew things about him, secrets he wouldn’t want spilled. If he refused me, I would remind him just how fragile his little position as Alpha heir was.
Still, my chest throbbed with something almost childlike as I thought of her again. Evaline. My little sister. My torment. My obsession.
I wondered what she looked like now.
Had she grown even more beautiful in her time away? Did she still flinch the way she used to when I whispered her name in the dark? Did she still bite her lip when she was scared, that tiny act of defiance she thought could hide her terror from me?
The idea that someone else might have touched her in these months made my vision blur red. No. She was mine. She had always been mine. No boy from her class, no Alpha, no wolf... not even her precious Ethan... could change that.
I quickened my steps, my mind racing with plans. Once I found Ethan, I would wring every scrap of information out of him. If he knew where she was, good. If he didn’t, then I would make him find out. One way or another, I would have her back.
Those warriors wanted me captured? Let them come. They would learn soon enough that I was far more dangerous than they thought. And if anyone tried to stand between me and my sister... anyone at all... I would make sure they regretted it.
Alive. She was alive.
The words burned like fire in my veins.
And Moon Goddess help her... she wasn’t going to stay hidden from me for long.
I adjusted the strap of my bag and slipped deeper into Blackwood territory, every step pulling me closer to Ethan... and closer to her.
I didn’t know how long the hunt would take. Didn’t know how many bodies would fall before it was done. But I knew one thing for certain.
I would find Evaline.
And when I do, she would learn... just like she always had... that she could never run from me.
Not unless I allowed it. And I would never allow that.