THE BEAST STOLEN BRIDE

[LILY'S POV]

I ran barefoot across the desert, rocks tearing into my soles, my lungs burning.

Behind me, wolves howled. Getting closer.

A gray wolf burst from the brush.

I screamed, veering right. My foot caught and I went down hard. The wolf lunged.

Black fur slammed into gray mid-leap.

Ford. He'd followed me.

They hit the ground in a tangle of teeth and claws. The gray wolf yelped as Ford's jaws found its throat.

"Keep running!" Ford's wolf voice was clear. "Don't stop!"

I scrambled to my feet and ran.

More howls. From the right. Behind. Surrounding us.

A brown wolf appeared in my path.

Ford crashed into it from the side. They rolled, snarling.

"LILY!" A new voice. Male. "This way!"

I spun. A man stood beside a four-wheeler, waving frantically. Dark hair. Scars matching Ford's.

Owen.

I ran. He grabbed my arm, hauling me onto the four-wheeler.

"What about Ford?"

"He'll catch up! Hold on!"

We shot forward. Three more wolves burst out. One lunged. Its claws scraped metal.

Owen swerved. I wrapped my arms around his waist.

Behind us, Ford's black wolf emerged, running full-speed. Five wolves chased him.

The fastest wolf-massive and silver-leaped, landing on Ford's back. They went down hard.

Ford rolled, then went still, exposing his throat.

The silver wolf's jaws opened-

Ford's hind legs came up, claws raking the silver wolf's belly. The wolf yelped. Ford was on his feet, jaws clamping its front leg.

Bone cracked.

Ford ran, injured leg dragging.

"There!" Owen pointed. "The second cabin!"

A structure appeared. Smaller. More isolated.

We reached it as Ford caught up. Owen killed the engine.

Ford shifted to human, bleeding from a dozen wounds. Blood dripped from his shoulder, ribs, thigh.

"Inside. Now."

The cabin was tiny. One room. Bed, table, supplies.

Ford locked the door, moved to the window. His hands shook.

"We have five minutes." He turned, and his gold eyes were desperate. "Five minutes for you to decide if I'm telling the truth or if I'm just another monster."

"Ford-"

"No." He grabbed a folder, papers scattering. "You want proof? Here."

He slammed down a photograph. Tyler standing over bodies. Wolf bodies.

"Stoneclaw massacre. My packmates dead." His voice cracked. "That's everyone I loved."

I stared at Tyler's cold face.

"Bank records," Ford continued, throwing down papers. "Payments from Tyler. Text messages planning it."

He wasn't calm anymore. His hands shook.

"Marriage contract." He jabbed at highlighted sections. "Clause twenty-three. Luna-born bloodline. All rights transfer to Tyler upon consummation. Clause twenty-four. If you die within the first year, he keeps everything."

"What's Luna-born-"

"It means you're royalty!" Ford shouted. "You can command other wolves! Tyler hunted your kind to extinction!"

He shoved another document at me.

"Private investigator's report. Tyler commissioned this three months before he met you. It traces your bloodline to Marcus and Elena Blackwood. Your real parents. Murdered sixteen years ago when you were seven."

My hands shook. "The Thompsons-"

"Were paid guardians!" Ford's voice was ragged. "Paid to hide you! To suppress your wolf with drugs!"

He threw down medical records.

"Your name! Suppressants from age seven until the Thompsons died! Your real parents were murdered! You saw it happen! They made you forget!"

The room spun.

"No," I whispered. "I would remember-"

"You were seven and they drugged you!" Ford's hands slammed the table. "They took your memories! They took your wolf! Then Tyler found you anyway!"

He was breathing hard, blood dripping, body shaking.

"He courted you fast. Proposed faster. Rushed the wedding before your wolf woke naturally. He was going to mate you, then kill you before sunrise." Ford's voice dropped. "When you died, your power would transfer to him. You'd just be another dead Luna-born nobody remembered."

Tears streamed down my face. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to LIVE!" Ford's shout was raw. "I watched my pack die! I won't watch you die too!"

"You don't even know me!"

"I know I'd rather die than let him touch you."

A howl cut through the air. Close.

Ford's head snapped toward the window. Terror replaced desperation.

"We don't have five minutes." He looked at me. "We have thirty seconds. They're already here. Twenty wolves. And Tyler's with them."

My heart stopped. "Tyler's here?"

"He's here." Ford's expression shifted to acceptance. Like he'd already accepted death.

"In thirty seconds, Tyler's wolves break down that door. I can fight three before they kill me. That gives you forty-five seconds to run out the back window."

"I'm not leaving you to die!"

"Yes, you are." He grabbed my shoulders. "If you stay, Tyler takes you. And everything I did was for nothing."

Outside, footsteps crunched. Voices shouted. Tyler's voice rose above them.

"Surround the cabin!"

Ford's hands tightened on my shoulders. "Does Tyler sound like love? The way he controlled you? Isolated you? How fast everything moved?"

I thought about Tyler's smile. His control.

Finally mine.

Not love. Ownership.

"Or does that sound like a trap?" Ford whispered.

The front door exploded inward.

Wolves poured through. Twenty at least.

Ford shifted, placing himself between me and them.

Tyler walked through the doorway. Still human. Still perfect. Still smiling.

"Hello, darling," he said. "Did you really think you could run from me?"

His eyes were empty.

"You're MINE, Lily. You belong to me."

Ford snarled.

Tyler's smile widened. "Stand down, exile. She's coming home." He gestured to his wolves. "Kill him."

The wolves advanced.

I grabbed a glass bottle and threw it.

It shattered against the lead wolf's head. The wolf yelped.

Every wolf turned to stare.

"No," I said, voice shaking but clear. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Tyler's expression went still. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not going with you. I'm staying with him." I moved beside Ford's wolf. My hand touched his fur.

"Lily." Tyler's voice was patient. "You're confused. Traumatized."

"I know exactly what I'm saying." My fingers tightened in Ford's fur. "You planned to kill me."

"That's ridiculous. The exile is manipulating you."

"Then explain clause twenty-four. Explain the investigator. Explain why you rushed the wedding." My voice was steady despite the tears. "Explain why everything Ford said is true."

Tyler's mask cracked. Rage twisted his features.

"Fine. I'll drag you back."

He shifted.

His white wolf was massive. Beautiful. Deadly.

He lunged straight for Ford's throat.

Ford met him mid-air, and they collided with a sound like thunder.

Blood sprayed.

The other wolves circled, snarling, waiting for the order to join.

Through the chaos, Tyler's white wolf looked at me.

His jaws were clamped around Ford's throat.

One bite. That's all it would take.

"STOP!" I screamed.

Every wolf in the room froze