Feral Bonds: Claimed By Rogue Alpha Brothers

Evaline:

I stopped breathing.

The world didn't slow - it collapsed. Time folded in on itself, pulling me back to a memory I never wanted to revisit. But the famikiar and haunting face walking toward us dragged me there anyway.

He was looking just the same and yet somehow worse. Time had sharpened his features, but to me, he was nothing more than a storm I thought I had outlived.

My chest tightened as memories surged to the surface, pounding into my ribs with every step he took closer.

The boy I had once looked at like he hung the moon. The one I trusted blindly. The one I was ready to spend the rest of my life with.

And the man who told me I was never enough.

The mate who humiliated me in front of the entire pack while my stepsister clung to his arm like she already owned him. Because she did, didn't she?

He chose her.

All the affection, the comfort, the illusion that he was my safe place - it had all been a lie. A carefully constructed play orchestrated by Damian, my stepbrother. I had fallen for Ethan's every word, every touch, every promise. I had believed he saw me, needed me, loved me.

But all he did was to shatter that illusion in the cruelest way possible.

I thought I would never see him again. I hoped our paths would never cross after I left my past behind. But here he was.

Unashamed.

And walking toward me like we didn't share a graveyard full of pain.

My vision blurred. I couldn't breathe. My fingers were twitching uselessly by my sides. Panic tightened around my throat, and every instinct inside me screamed to run, to vanish.

I started trembling - violently, uncontrollably.

I reached out, desperate for something to ground me, and my hand found River.

His arm was solid beneath my palm, and the moment I touched him, his head turned sharply. His eyes narrowed as he registered the fear I was radiating, like a dam breaking inside me.

"Evaline?" His voice was quiet, cautious. "What's wrong?"

I couldn't answer.

Ethan was too close now.

Too real.

I couldn't look away. I couldn't move. I felt frozen, like a deer staring down a hunter, but this hunter had already pulled the trigger once.

My lips parted, but only one word slipped through.

"Help."

If I hadn't been unraveling, I might have noticed the change in River. The way his entire body tensed, like my whisper had pierced something far deeper than the surface. His eyes widened briefly as if my request had struck some cord he didn't even know he had.

He didn't ask again. He followed my gaze.

He turned his head just enough to glance over his shoulder… and saw Ethan.

And that's when he moved.

So fast it felt like a gust of wind, he stepped into me, pulling me tight against his chest in a smooth, protective motion. The world spun, and suddenly I was enveloped in his coat, my face pressed to his warm chest, completely hidden from view.

He wrapped his arms around me - firm, immovable. They felt like a barrier between me and my past.

Right at that moment, the footsteps halted beside us.

"Alpha Thorne," Ethan's voice rang out - far too familiar, far too cheerful. "It's such an honor to meet you in person. I'm Ethan Blackwood from Blackwood Pack."

River didn't respond.

I felt the shift before I sensed it - the weight of his power rippling outward, silent and suffocating. Like a tidal wave crashing against the edges of the corridor. His aura flooded the space with such quiet menace that I felt Ethan flinch even though I couldn't see it.

The silence dragged.

And then Ethan's voice came again, weaker this time. "I didn't realize you were with someone. My apologies, I didn't mean to interrupt your… moment."

There was a pause. River's arms stayed locked around me like a shield, his body unmoving. His power pressed harder.

Ethan swallowed. I heard it.

"I'll… I'll be on my way. Sorry again."

His footsteps retreated quickly - almost too quickly. He was running from River's presence, not from guilt. He didn't even realize who I was. Of course he didn't.

I waited.

Even after the sound of his steps vanished down the corridor, I couldn't move. My fingers were clutching the fabric of River's suit coat like a lifeline. The terror hadn't ebbed. It was still coiled in my chest, strangling me.

River's hands were gentle when they shifted, one moving to my lower back, the other brushing softly along my arm.

Then he said, quietly, "Come with me."

Still in a haze, I let him take my hand. His grip was firm, unyielding as he led me away from the hallway, away from the grand hall, away from all of it. I followed blindly, my mind still spinning in a fog of disbelief.

We ended up in a side room - some office or meeting chamber, empty and dimly lit. He closed the door behind us, then turned the lock with a click.

The sound grounded me more than anything else had. My heart thudded against my ribs, but I was no longer gasping.

I stood still, trying to catch my breath. The silence between us stretched, thick and heavy.

"I thought he was dead," I finally whispered. And I meant that. Since he was with Lilian that evening, I had assumed that he might have become a victim of the annihilation.

River said nothing. He just waited.

I met his eyes. "I just… thought I would never have to see him again. I built a life without ever expecting to cross paths with him again."

I was babbling at this point. River didn't even know who Ethan was or how I was related to him. Most importantly, why would he care about my reaction-

"I might not know anything, but I do care, Evaline."

His sharp words had me staring at him in confusion for a moment until I realized that I just spoke my thoughts out loud.

He closed the space and came to stand right in front of me. "Ethan Blackwood... what's your relation with him?"