Page 48 of The Alpha's Runaway Mate
By the time the shower shuts off, my eyes are already closing. The bed dips when he climbs in beside me, his hand sliding over my hip, pulling my back up against his chest.
I drift somewhere between waking and sleep, caught in that soft place where the world feels simple again. I don’t feel like I’m running. I feel like I’m home.
SEVENTEEN
NOLAN
Xander’s placesmells like coffee, rain, and faint traces of blood. Declan’s blood. It’s weaker now, just a whisper beneath the scent of soap and clean clothes, but it still clings to the air like a warning.
It’s been a week and a half since Declan came back. I’ve been here to see him every other day, checking in making sure he’s not going rogue. Making sure he’s okay.
He’s awake this time, sitting on the couch with a mug cupped between his hands. His eyes are clear and alert and the bruises along his jaw are gone, thanks to our shifter healing. But he seems haunted, older than he used to. It kills me seeing him like this.
Kolt leans against the far wall, arms crossed, shoulders tense. Xander sits opposite in the worn armchair, boots braced on the floor, quiet and watchful.
I take the spot across from Declan, elbows on my knees. “You’re starting to look better, more like yourself.”
A faint, tired smile touches his mouth. “You should’ve seen me a week ago.”
“Want to tell us what happened?” I ask.
He hesitates, fingers tightening around the mug. Then he nods, gaze dropping to the floor. “It started near the state line. Routine patrol. I picked up a scent that was all wrong, twisted. I thought it might’ve been an injured shifter or something. I was wrong. There were four rogues. Only they weren’t just rogues, there was something not right about them. Like they were half feral half on a mission to destroy.”
Kolt mutters a curse under his breath.
“They came out of nowhere,” Declan goes on. “I didn’t have time to shift. I was about to take one down, then something hit me from behind, and everything went dark.”
He pauses, the faint tremor in his hands betraying how fresh it still feels. “When I woke up, I wasn’t in our world anymore. The air smelled different, like iron and rain. I realized I was in the Fae realm.”
That gets everyone’s attention.
Xander straightens slowly. “You’re sure?”
Declan nods once. “I’m sure. The forest glowed at night. The ground… it breathed. And they were there, Fae. At least five of them. They found me half-dead and carried me to their village. Said something dark had been moving through their borders and that I’d been caught in it.”
“Did they help you?” I ask.
“They tried.” His voice dips low, rough around the edges. “One of them, a female named Ryn, she was different. Kind. Strong. She looked at me like she could see everything I was hiding. She healed most of my wounds, but whatever the rogues left behind, it fought back. It spread through me.”
He pushes up his sleeve. Black veins, faint as ink, thread beneath his skin and pulse once before fading again.
“She said it was a curse,” he continues. “Something ancient. She tried to hold it back with her magic. We spent days, weeks, maybe, fighting it. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we… connected. I thought she could be my mate but I could never be sure, I was too fucked up from whatever is still inside me.”
Kolt’s brows shoot up. “A Fae?”
Declan nods, jaw tightening. “I wasn’t sure. I could feel the pull, but the darkness inside me made it hard to tell what was real. Everything blurred, pain, magic, her voice. Then one night the rogues came back.”
He sets the mug down carefully, as if afraid it might slip from his hands. “They attacked the fae village. There was fire everywhere. Screaming. Ryn tried to protect me, but before I could reach her, she was gone. All of them had just vanished. One second there, the next, nothing. I searched for her, for any of them, but the forest was empty. It was like they’d been erased.”
Xander’s voice is low, careful. “You think they’re dead?”
“I don’t know.” Declan’s throat works as he swallows. “But I know I was alone. I wandered for days, maybe longer. Time doesn’t move the same there. The curse kept spreading throughme. I couldn’t shift without losing control. I started to forget who I was, where home even was.”
He drags a hand over his face, eyes hollow. “That’s when I saw you two. You found me, but I wasn’t myself. I didn’t even recognize you at first. All I could feel was the hunger. The rage.”
Kolt’s expression hardens. “Yeah. We could tell.”
Declan huffs a humorless laugh. “Figures. I remember flashes, your voices, the fight, then pain. Next thing I knew, I had ended up here at Xander’s.”
