Serena's POV
The bathroom door shook so hard the mirror rattled.
"Open this door. Now." Marcus's voice was low and mean, the kind of mean that made her stomach drop. Not the yelling kind. The worse kind.
Serena's hands shook as she unlatched the small window above the toilet. Her breath came in short gasps. Three months. She'd gotten three whole months away from him and he still found her. He always found her.
The door rattled again. Harder.
"I'm coming in there, Serena. You're not leaving me." His fist slammed against the wood. Once. Twice. "You belong to me."
She squeezed through the window frame, feeling the rough paint scrape her shoulders. The backpack caught for a second but she yanked it through with her. Behind her, she heard him kick the door. The wood cracked.
The cold night hit her skin and she almost cried. She was out. She was actually out.
Serena hit the ground hard and started running.
The woods behind the apartment complex were thick and dark. Branches whipped at her face, cutting her cheek. She didn't care. Her lungs were burning, her legs were screaming, but she just kept moving. Don't think. Just run.
"Serena!" Marcus crashed through the trees behind her, his voice getting closer. "You can't do this to me. You can't just leave. You're mine."
That word made her want to scream. Mine. Like she was something he owned. Like she didn't have the right to her own life.
She ran harder.
The forest seemed to go on forever. Trees clawed at her thin pajamas, ripping holes in the fabric. Her bare feet found sharp rocks and broken branches. Pain shot through her ankle when she stepped wrong but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop. If he caught her tonight, he'd make sure she never left again.
She'd seen the zip ties in his jacket pocket. The duct tape tucked into his bag.
Behind her, Marcus was crashing through the underbrush like he was going to tear the whole forest apart. He was screaming things. Ugly things. Things about what he'd do to her if she didn't come back. Things about how nobody would ever want her. How she was nothing without him.
She almost believed it. That was the worst part. After two years of him saying the same things over and over, she almost believed every word.
But something inside her that wasn't broken yet said run.
So she ran.
The clearing came out of nowhere. One second she was surrounded by trees and darkness, the next the sky opened up above her. Moonlight poured down like silver water. For just a moment, her foot caught on a root and she went flying.
She hit the ground hard. The air left her lungs in a rush.
For a second she couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Could only lie there gasping like a fish that had jumped out of water.
Behind her, Marcus was still coming. She could hear him crashing through the trees at the edge of the clearing. She had maybe ten seconds before he reached her.
Serena tried to push herself up but her legs wouldn't work. They were shaking too hard. Her whole body was shaking. The backpack dug into her ribs. Two hundred dollars in cash. That was all she had. That and the clothes on her back and a heart that wouldn't stop racing.
She looked up at the moon and thought about how she was going to die tonight. How Marcus was going to make sure she never tried to leave again.
The sound of branches breaking stopped.
For a second there was nothing. Just the wind in the trees and the sound of Serena's own breathing. Her eyes were still on the moon, waiting for him to appear at the edge of the clearing. Waiting for it to be over.
Then she smelled something weird. Like rain and smoke mixed together.
She turned her head.
Two shapes moved at the edge of the clearing. Dark. Massive. Too big to be human. They moved like water, smooth and dangerous, stepping out from between the trees like they'd been waiting there the whole time.
Serena's breath caught in her throat.
They came into the moonlight and she saw them clearly.
Two men. Identical twins. Both tall enough to make her crane her neck back. Both wearing dark clothes that somehow fit their muscles perfectly. Both with faces like something carved out of stone. Sharp cheekbones. Strong jaws. Eyes that were silver. Literally silver. Glowing silver in the moonlight like something wasn't right, like something wasn't human.
Serena's brain tried to make sense of what she was seeing and failed.
The one on the left took a step toward her. "Are you hurt?"
His voice was smooth and cool and it made her think of winter and ice. He moved like he was used to people doing what he said. Used to being in charge.
The other one moved differently. Faster. More like he was vibrating with energy. "Who's chasing you?"
This one's voice had heat in it. Like fire instead of ice.
Serena couldn't answer. She couldn't do anything but stare at their eyes. Those impossible silver eyes that didn't make sense. That couldn't be real.
"Marcus!" The sound of his voice coming from the trees made her jump. "I see you, you stupid girl. You can't hide from me. You can't ever hide from me."
He stumbled into the clearing, wild-eyed and furious. His shirt was torn from running through the forest. His face was red and sweating. He had something in his hand. It took her brain a second to recognize it.
A gun.
Everything stopped.
The two men moved. Not slowly. Not like they were thinking about it. They moved like lightning, like they couldn't help it. The one with the ice voice stepped in front of her so fast she barely saw him move. The hot one did the same, his body tense like a coiled spring.
"You don't want to do this," the cold one said. His voice wasn't angry. That almost made it worse. It was just fact. Like he was telling Marcus the sky was blue.
Marcus laughed. The sound was crazy. The sound of someone who'd already made his choice and didn't care about anything else.
"Stay out of this," he said. "She's mine. I'll shoot if I have to."
Serena felt something twist inside her chest. He would. She knew he would. When Marcus got like this, there was no talking him down. There was only giving in or getting hurt.
The hot one growled. It wasn't a human sound.
"Touch her and you're dead," he said, and he meant it. Every word of it.
Marcus raised the gun. "Last warning."
Everything happened at once.
The cold one moved faster than anything alive should be able to move. The gun went flying before Marcus could even process what happened. Marcus went flying after it, slammed hard against a tree like he weighed nothing, like he was a doll instead of a grown man.
The breath left his body in a rush.
The hot one stepped between Serena and Marcus, his whole body vibrating with something she couldn't name. His eyes weren't silver anymore. They were red. Glowing red.
Serena's scream died in her throat.
"You just threatened a Luna on Nightshade territory," the cold one said from somewhere above her. "That's a death sentence."
Luna. Territory. Nightshade.
None of those words made sense together.
Serena was still trying to figure out what was happening when the hot one turned to her. His red eyes faded back to silver. His face softened like he was trying not to scare her, but it was too late. Everything about this was terrifying.
"Our fated mate," he said quietly. "The one our souls are meant to find."
He paused. Let the words hang in the air between them.
"Both of us."
Her entire body caught fire.
It wasn't pain. It wasn't anything she had a name for. Heat flooded through her veins like lightning, like lava, like something ancient and primal was waking up inside her blood and recognizing something in these men that she didn't understand.
Her hazel eyes met their silver ones across the moonlit clearing.
And everything changed.