He stared at me, his expression unreadable.
Then, just like that, he turned away, crouched by the fire again, and resumed cleaning his blade.
Dismissed.
Like I wasn’t even worth arguing with in the first place.
I bit back a growl, stealing a glance at the cave entrance. Rain still hissed outside, and the wind howled low between the rocks.
I wasn’t ready to move. Not yet. Not until I could be sure of the terrain, the distance, and his weapons.
He had carried me away from the wolves. That much was true.
But that didn’t make him safe.
MIRA
The fire burned low, painting the cave walls in strokes of amber and shadow. Gorran’s gaze didn’t waver as he spoke, his voice calm but carrying the weight of something ancient and immovable.
We were having this conversation again—the one where he spoke in certainties that felt like pure insanity to me.
He was stoic and patient, as ifIwere the irrational one and his words made perfect sense.
Ridiculous. You’ll never convince me.
“By orc law,” he said, “I saved your life. You belong to me now. Until the debt is paid.”
My pulse kicked. “Belong?” The word tasted like rust on my tongue. “You saved me to trap me?”
His eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn’t flinch. “I saved you. You’re safe. The rest is noise.”
Noise?As if my terror, my fury, and my entire existence were just a background hum?
“You’re out of your mind.” I shoved off the wall, ignoring the ache in my head, and made for the cave mouth. “I’m not your debt, and I’m not your anything.”
He didn’t move to stop me.
The night air slammed into me, cold and wet, scented with pine and the metallic tang of rain. The forest stretched wide and black and terrifying, the branches heavy with water. My heart pounded as I put one foot in front of the other, slowly, deliberately, daring him to challenge me.
Behind me, the fire cracked. Gorran didn’t follow.
Good.
I’d taken maybe twenty steps before the sound came: a deep, unearthly howl, rolling through the trees like the voice of something that had never known fear. My blood froze.
Something was out there.
I turned, and he was already standing in the cave entrance, broad shoulders filling the space, his presence a dark wall of certainty.
“Inside,” he said. It wasn’t a request but a command.
The shadows shifted beyond the tree line, and I saw it: a beast, low and sleek, pacing the edge of the clearing.
Dire wolf.
Its eyes glowed like coals in the rain-soaked dark.
A shiver went through me. The wolves were the things that stalked our human nightmares in the deep of the night.
