Chapter 5 The Silence Before The Hunt

~LEILANI RAVENWOOD~

The silence pressed in from every direction. The trees stood perfectly still. Not a leaf moved. Not a branch. Even the night sounds had died. No crickets. No wind. Nothing. It was as though every living creature in these woods had simultaneously decided to hold their breath.

Then I heard it.

A rustle of wind, and it made me go still.

"Leaving the safety of your pack's walls at a time like this?" The voice came from behind me. Smooth and darkly amused. "One would think you'd be wiser. More careful... for someone being hunted."

Every muscle in my body went rigid at the familiarity of the voice, and I turned slowly.

He stepped out from the darkness like the night itself had birthed him.

Sebastian Kol.

The moonlight fell across his features with a precision that felt almost cruel, illuminating his sharp jaw, his dark eyes that glowed a haunting blue, and his mouth set in a line that wasn't quite a smile and wasn't quite anything else.

He was beautiful. In the way disasters are beautiful. Devastatingly. Unfairly. The black coat he wore trailed behind him as he advanced slowly toward me, predatory in every step.

He looked young, far too young for a creature said to be six centuries old. But there was something in his gaze that told the truth, a depth that no mortal should carry.

I had spent the entire day reading about him. Account after account of destruction and ruin and the particular brand of terror that followed his name across centuries. Monster. Ancient. Cursed.

Not one of them had warned me about this. Not one of them had thought to mention that the most dangerous thing about Sebastian Kol was that he looked like something you would walk toward willingly.

"You've been reading about me." He said, in the way someone who already knew the answer would.

I said nothing.

Somehow, he already knew far too much about me. Last night, he gained access to my dreams and now he could tell what I'd done.

His eyes moved over my face. Unhurried. Taking inventory of every micro-expression I was trying to suppress and finding all of them anyway.

"Did it help?" He asked.

Still I said nothing.

The corner of his mouth shifted. "It never does."

He took a step closer.

I stepped back.

He matched it, closing the distance I created so effortlessly it was almost casual, as though my retreat was simply part of a choreography he had already memorized.

"Don't." The word came out small and fierce at once.

He stopped.

Not because of the word. I understood that immediately. He stopped because he chose to.

"Hmm... I figured I'd come for you now. Your father is still going to make the wrong choice either way, and my time is far too precious to waste. Why wait until tomorrow for them to die when they can die today?"

My breath caught.

"Don't you dare threaten me!"

"It's not a threat." His voice was patient in a way that was somehow worse than cruelty. "I'm telling you what comes next. There's a difference." He tilted his head slightly. "A threat implies uncertainty. What I'm describing is simply what occurs."

My hands curled into fists at my sides.

"Your father's lands will burn." He continued, each word arriving with the same unbothered certainty. "Every wolf who raises a weapon will fall. Every wall will come down. Every living thing that stands between me and you will cease to exist." A pause. "And then I will still take you."

"You're a monster." The words shook on the way out.

He said nothing.

Just looked at me.

And that was worse. Because monsters were supposed to react to being called what they were. They were supposed to snarl or lunge or prove it in some dramatic way. He just stood there and looked at me with those eyes and let the word land and settle and mean nothing. Like he had been called worse by better people and found all of them equally uninteresting.

"Go to hell." I whispered.

"I just woke up from one." He said it quietly. No heat. No amusement. Just fact. "You should know that before you keep hoping I have limits."

The air between us felt thinner somehow.

"Run." He said.

I stared at him. "What?"

His eyes dropped to my mouth. Then rose back to mine slowly.

"Run, little wolf." He repeated, barely above a whisper, smooth, controlled, and with something underneath it that made my pulse spike violently. "It's the last chance you'll get to pretend this ends differently."

Every nerve in my body fired at once.

I ran.

The forest became a blur of dark shapes and tearing branches. I ran harder than I had ever run, lungs screaming, legs burning. I didn't look back. Looking back was how prey died. I drove every ounce of strength I had into the ground and ran. Hoping to escape the terror I had just encountered.

Behind me, I heard nothing.

No footsteps. No pursuit. No sound at all.

And somehow the silence was the most terrifying thing I had ever run through. Because the silence meant he wasn't chasing me. It meant he didn't need to. It meant he was already ahead of me, already had me where he wanted.

The air shifted. One second I was running then the next, I wasn't.

Arms locked around me mid-stride and I was lifted clean off the ground, with so much ease as though I weighed nothing.

I fought.

I fought with everything I had. Twisting. Kicking. Clawing. Driving my elbow back so hard I felt the impact shudder up my own arm.

He didn't even adjust his grip.

I was simply held. Contained. Every attempt at escape absorbed without acknowledgment, without effort, like struggling against something that had decided to be immovable and found the decision entirely effortless.

"You ran beautifully." He whispered against my ear. Barely audible. Like something genuinely meant.

Which made it the most frightening thing he had said all night.

A darkness came for me fast after that, pulling me under before I could fight it.The last thing I felt was his arms. Solid. Warm. Completely certain. The last thing I heard was his voice dropping to just above silence.

"Now. Let's see what the goddess truly made you for."