#3 The Net Closes

Running felt like my only truth.

My heartbeat lived in every inch of me. It pounded against my ribs, thrummed through my legs, and screamed at me to move, faster, faster, don’t look back, don’t breathe wrong, don’t let them catch you.

The forest ripped past me in streaks of green and gold. Sweat stung my eyes. My muscles burned with a fierce, electric ache, but they didn’t falter the way they should. My body felt built for this. Trained for it. Sculpted by instinct.

Behind me? He was still there. The silver-eyed one.

His presence was a pressure on my spine, a stalking awareness threading into my pulse. Every time my foot hit the ground, it was like he echoed the movement a heartbeat behind me. His breath was never ragged. His steps were never sloppy. He hunted with confidence, like he already knew the ending.

A sharp whistle cut the air. Not random. A signal.

My stomach dropped.

I pushed harder, dodged left, and dove into a tight gap between two massive oaks. Bark scraped my arm as I slid beneath a branch, rolling back to my feet without losing momentum.

The sound behind me shifted. Not one hunter.

Two.

A blur of pale motion flickered to my right. The second one, bigger and broader, moving with the grounded weight of a creature who had never once failed to catch what he wanted.

My lungs burned. My legs screamed. The forest suddenly felt too small.

I spotted a thick branch overhead. Instinct took over. My body gathered, I jumped, and my fingers caught wood. I swung up, and pulled myself into the leaves as silently as I could.

The silver-eyed one burst below the tree a breath later.

He slowed, his nostrils flaring, shadows curling around him like smoke that was alive and hungry. His eyes glowed faintly as he tracked my path, straight to the tree I clung to.

If he looked up....He did. Fucks sakes. I can't catch a break.

Our eyes locked through the leaves. A cold jolt shot through me. He crouched.

I dropped first.

My body fell like a stone, catching him mid-leap. My shoulder slammed into him, knocking him onto his back in a snarl of shadows and fury. My ribs screamed from the impact but adrenaline shoved the pain aside.

I sprinted the second my feet hit dirt. He came after me instantly. But I wasn’t alone with him anymore.

A heavier presence cut the air behind me. The second one. The massive one. The one whose footsteps thundered like a drumbeat of inevitability.

I zigzagged between trees. They followed like they were made for this forest. A hand grazed my back. Another grabbed for my arm.

I ducked, rolled, and slashed out with my knife, catching nothing but air because they were too damn fast.

My pulse hammered. The woods opened briefly into a rocky slope and I took it, sliding down on loose leaves before gripping the bark of a fallen log and vaulting clean over it.

I landed, spun.....And crashed straight into a wall of muscle.

Huge hands caught my shoulders, slamming me back into a tree before I could twist away. Pain flared down my spine. My knife lifted automatically...and a large hand closed around my wrist.

Claws grazed my skin.

His eyes, dark, bottomless, and wild, held mine like he was reading something under my bones.

Up close, he was terrifying. Every inch of him radiated heat and power. His chest rose in slow, controlled breaths that felt like a warning.

“Let go,” I rasped, trying to slam my knee upward.

He blocked it with a shift of his thigh, pinning my hips without touching them.

“No,” he growled, his voice smoky and rough, and so low it vibrated through the bark behind me.

My stomach flipped at the sound. Not fear. Not exactly. The silver-eyed one appeared behind him, with shadows twisting around his shoulders, his expression cold, and furious.

He stepped closer. “Move.”

The dark-eyed one didn’t even look back. “She ran from me.”

“And I found her first.”

“You lost her.”

“You interfered.”

They were arguing over me. Over me. My pulse rattled. The dark-eyed one leaned in. His breath brushed my cheek, warm and wild. He inhaled deeply, like he was memorizing me, claiming me with scent alone.

Something hot and disorienting shot down my spine.

I shoved at him again. He didn’t budge. He didn’t even blink.

The silver-eyed one stepped to the side, his shadows curling outward in a slow, deliberate circle around all three of us. “You’re scaring her.”

He wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t right either. I wasn’t sure what I felt. Fear. Heat. Something primal and stupidly curious.

The dark-eyed one dragged his knuckles slowly down the bark beside my face. “She isn’t afraid.”

“How do you know?” the silver one murmured.

“Her heartbeat.” A faint, wicked smile curved his lips. “She’s fighting us. Not fleeing.”

My breath hitched. I didn’t know how to answer that. I didn’t know how to feel about that.

The silver-eyed one stepped closer still. “Let her go.”

“Make me.”

The tension snapped tight, like a live wire humming between them. Their bodies shifted subtly, too subtly for humans, like they were deciding who got to tear into the other first.

I didn’t wait for the decision.

I twisted hard, using the dark-eyed one’s grip as leverage. My foot slid up the tree, braced, and I pushed off with everything I had. His hold broke just enough for me to wrench my wrist free.

I slashed the knife toward his ribs.

He dodged, but not cleanly. A shallow line of red bloomed along his side. He snarled, his eyes flashing.

I bolted.

Branches tore at my arms. Roots tried to trip me. My breath ripped through my throat like fire. Every instinct I had screamed move, run, live.

Behind me, heavy footsteps pounded. The ground shuddered under the massive one’s sprint. Shadows whipped and snapped as the silver-eyed one chased from the flank.

They were hunting me together.

And gods help me…It didn’t feel hopeless.

It felt inevitable.

I dove between three leaning logs and wedged myself into the tight shelter, my chest heaving, and a tremor running beneath my skin.

The woods quieted slowly. Their steps slowed. Circling. Waiting.

A shadow passed the gap. Broad shoulders. Dark eyes. Breath like a growl ready to break free.

Another passed the opposite side. Silver eyes glowing. Shadows licking the dirt like smoke hungry for prey.

I held my breath. Held still. Held on. Until the forest swallowed them, one fading sound at a time.

And even then…my body trembled with leftover heat, fear, and something far more dangerous.

Something that whispered....You’re not running from them....

....You’re running toward what you already are.