Page 31 of Betrayed Knocked-Up Mate

His expensive suit is immaculate despite the violence, his smile sharp as a blade as his eyes find mine. Time seems to stutter, memories overlapping reality—my father's study splashed with red, my mother's fingers still curled around her phone, Kane's voice explaining exactly why they had to die.

"Marcus," he says now, as if greeting an old friend. "It's been too long."

A shot rings out—precise, professional. Asher's gun goes flying, a line of red appearing across his knuckles.

Kane's people emerge from cover, weapons trained on us with lethal focus.

"Get them out of here," Camila breathes, so soft only I could hear it. Her hand finds mine behind the barricade, a split-second squeeze that says everything we don't have time for. "I'll draw them off with you."

Before I can protest, she's already moving. A flash of teeth, a burst of speed, and she's darting around the corner of the clinic.

My body follows before my mind can process, instinct overwhelming caution. Behind us, I hear Kane's amused laugh, the sound of his people giving chase.

We run. Anything to get them away from James and Asher and Elena, I tell myself.

Anything to stay with Camila, to keep her safe.

The alley between buildings becomes a blur of shadow and light, our footsteps echoing off brick walls still wet with morning dew. Camila moves like water, like she's spent years learning to escape through narrow spaces.

A bullet sparks off the wall beside us, then another.

Kane's almost playful voice carries on the wind: "Come now, Marcus. Is this really how you want to do this?"

"Split up," I growl, but Camila's already shaking her head.

"They'll pick us off separately. We need—"

The wall ahead of us explodes in a shower of brick and mortar. We pivot as one, taking the only path left—a narrow passage between the old warehouse and the pack center's auxiliary building. The space grows tighter, the walls pressing in, and I can smell Kane's people spreading out to cut off our escape routes.

"Trying to protect someone else you love?" Kane calls, his voice bouncing off the walls until I can't tell where it's coming from. "We both know how well that worked out last time."

My vision bleeds red at the edges. Beside me, Camila's breath catches—the first sign of fear I've seen from her. Not fear of the danger, but fear of the truth in Kane's words.

The alley ends abruptly in a dead end.

Doom settles over me, a stark, cold weight. We spin to face our pursuers, backs against the wall. Camila's shoulder presses against mine, her breathing steady despite everything. Kane emerges from the shadows, flanked by his people, looking for all the world like he's exactly where he planned to be.

"Well," he says, his smile widening as his gaze falls on Camila. "What do we have here? A packmate?" His head tilts, considering. "No, not quite. A friend? She looks so much like your mother, you know. Same fire in her eyes.”

His lips curl with that glimmer of manic, furious pleasure.

“I wonder if she'll scream the same way when—"

The roar tears from my throat before he can finish. But Camila moves first, shoving me aside as Elena—who must have followed us—stumbles into view behind Kane's people. Blood matts her hair from her earlier injury, and she's barely standing.

Unable to even raise her arm, she fires a single bullet into the concrete.

Everything happens at once.

Kane's people spin toward the new threat. Elena begins to crumple, her desperate gambit having drawn their attention. Camila launches herself forward, trying to reach her. The gun goes off—I don't see who fires it—and Camila collides with Elena, taking them both down as brick dust explodes where Elena's head had been.

Then Camila's head cracks against the pavement, and she goes terrifyingly still.

Something in me shatters.

The world turns red and sharp and simple. My shift ripples through me without conscious thought, bones cracking and reforming as my wolf takes over. Kane's smile never wavers—if anything, it grows wider as I launch myself at him, shifting in the air, the crack of my bones moving sharply as drums in my ears, the rush of my blood a tumult of endless fury.

"There you are,"he says, meeting my charge with inhuman speed. "There's the monster I've been waiting for."

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