Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Aneira

I considered several options very carefully.

Option one: ignore him completely and pretend the cottage was empty.

Unfortunately, Darius already knew I was inside.

Option two: stab him.

Tempting but he was a full blooded wolf. He would tear me apart in seconds.

Option three: see what he wants. That was the only viable option.

Hex continued hissing somewhere behind me like an offended kettle, the sound bouncing irritably off the wooden beams.

“You’re being dramatic,” I informed the cat quietly.

Hex hissed harder.

“Shhh.”

Another knock echoed through the cottage, sharper this time, like he was getting comfortable outside my patience.

“Sage,” Darius drawled, “if you make me stand out here much longer, I’m going to start taking it personally.”

I froze.

Slowly, very slowly, I turned toward the door.

Absolutely wonderful.

“Interesting,” I muttered darkly. “So robbing me wasn’t enough. Now we’re also doing stalking.”

A soft laugh drifted through the wood, low and entirely too amused.

“You gave me a fake name first.”

Fair point.

Still irritating.

I tightened my grip briefly around the knife before finally crossing the cottage. The floorboards creaked under my steps as I yanked the door open just enough to glare at him through the gap.

Cold mountain air immediately forced its way inside, sharp and clean, carrying snow, pine, and rogue scent with it. It pressed against the doorway like even the wind itself didn’t know where it was allowed to stop.

Darius looked unfairly good standing there beneath the falling snow.

“What do you want?” I asked flatly.

His silver eyes flicked briefly over my face before lowering slightly, as if taking in details he hadn’t bothered to notice before.

“You’re doing well for yourself. I heard there was a healer up here. So I came to look for myself,” he answered.

“Great, now you’ve seen. You can go back.” I said, already imagining how satisfying it would feel to slam the door in his face.

“Come on, won’t you even offer me some tea?” he asked.

Hex hissed loudly behind us, offended by the mere suggestion of hospitality.

“I think the cat hates me.” He commented, wrinkling his eyebrows like this was a personal injustice.

“Hex hates everyone,” I groaned. “Fine, come in.”

He muttered a thank you and squeezed his big self into my cottage, immediately shaking snow from his coat and boots. White flakes scattered across my already-too-clean floor. This was going to be a disaster later.

“Hey! Take off your boots and coat,” I yelled at him as he ventured further in.

He complied without complaint and dropped onto the bench I used for treating people, the wood creaking slightly under his weight.

“Won’t you even ask how I knew it was you?” he said while I crushed some leaves into a mug, the smell of herbs filling the air.

“How?”

“The average traveller talked about a healer with the deepest amber eyes. Some also said you smelled like an omega.” He answered.

The cup landed on the table louder than I intended.

The sound cracked through the room.

Omega.

The word settled ugly beneath my ribs before I could stop it.

An omega was described as weak, useless and fragile.

Ashfang had spent years forcing those words into my skin until even silence sounded like judgment.

My grip tightened briefly around the edge of the table.

Yeah, I was an omega.

But people climbed mountains looking for me now.

“Drink up and leave,” I said.

His eyes wandered around the cottage slowly, taking in the hanging herbs, drying bundles, and scattered tools before he chuckled.

“What now?” I groaned.

“The lower borders are also being searched for a female omega travelling alone.” He said.

Oh.

That was not good.

The fire behind me crackled a little louder, as if reacting on my behalf.

“Looks like you need supplies,” he paused dramatically, a wide smile spreading across his annoyingly pretty face, “Which means you need me.”

“You don’t say,” I deadpan, rolling my eyes. “However did you come to that conclusion?”

“I know these forests like the back of my hand. I could sneak you in and out of Ashfang without you ever being noticed,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.

“And what’s in it for you?” I asked.

Darius didn’t answer immediately.

That alone made something in me sharpen.

He lifted the cup I had given him, studying it for a moment as though it might reveal something about me he hadn’t figured out yet, then finally leaned back against the bench, stretching slightly like he had all the time in the world.

“That’s a funny question coming from someone who just let a stranger into her home and offered him tea.”

“I didn’t offer. You forced yourself in,” I said.

A faint smirk tugged at his mouth.

“Same thing in healer language?”

Hex jumped onto the table between us, tail flicking sharply as he stared at Darius like he was personally responsible for every misfortune in existence.

Darius looked down at him.

“I really don’t think he likes me.”

“He has taste,” I muttered.

Hex hissed again, low and warning.

Darius exhaled a quiet laugh, then, just like that, the humor vanished from his face. It was like watching someone close a door inside themselves.

“I need something from Ashfang,” he said.

My grip on the counter tightened slightly.

“That’s not an answer.”

“It is. You just don’t like it.”

Silence stretched between us, thick and alive, filled only by the soft crackle of the fire and Hex’s occasional offended breath.

I studied him properly this time.

Not the charm.

Not the ease.

Not the arrogance he wore like armor.

The thing underneath it.

The part that didn’t belong in a place like this.

“You’re not here by accident,” I said slowly.

“No,” he admitted.

“And you’re not just ‘helping’ me,” I added.

Another pause.

Then, quieter:

“No.”

I let out a short, humorless laugh.

“Of course not.”

Darius leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees now, attention fully locked on me.

“I’m offering you a way out of here without getting caught. That’s all.”

“And in return?”

His gaze held mine steadily.

“You get the item I need.”

The knife was in my hand again before I even realized I’d moved.

“Why would I ever trust you?”

His eyes flicked briefly to the blade, then back to my face without flinching.

“Because if I wanted you dead,” he said calmly, “you wouldn’t be standing.”

A beat.

The fire popped softly behind us.

“And because you already are being hunted.”

The room went still.

Even Hex stopped moving.

Darius stood slowly, careful, like sudden motion might break something fragile between us.

“I’m not your enemy, Sage.”

I gave him a flat look.

“That’s exactly what an enemy would say.”

A faint smile returned, but it didn’t reach his eyes this time. There was something more grounded in it now. Less performance.

“Then don’t trust me,” he said. “Use me.”

Outside, wind scraped against the cottage again, harsher this time, like something testing the walls.

Inside, everything felt too small suddenly. Too close. Too aware.

“What’s the item?” I asked. “I need to know what I’m risking my life for before I agree to any of this.”

Something unreadable crossed his face then.

Gone almost immediately.

“It belonged to my family,” he said finally.

That caught my attention.

Darius didn’t look like someone who talked about family often.

“It was taken years ago,” he continued quietly. “Ashfang kept it.”

“A relic?” I guessed.

His jaw tightened slightly.

“Something like that.”

“That’s still not an answer.”

“No,” he agreed. “But it’s the only one you’re getting tonight.”

Silence stretched again.

The fire crackled softly behind me while snow battered the windows harder outside.

Ashfang.

Even thinking about going back near the territory made something cold twist low in my stomach.

The bond stirred faintly beneath my ribs at the thought, painful and unwanted.

I hated that part most.

Not the fear.

The fact that some reckless part of me still remembered his eyes and hair and warmth and the feeling of being wanted strongly enough to break me apart.

What if Kale found me?

This freedom I had fought so hard for.

The quiet little life I was finally building for myself here.

All of it could vanish the second he saw me again.

My fingers tightened around the knife.

I needed supplies.

Medicine.

Winter was getting worse and half my shelves were already running low.

Without supplies, people here would suffer for it. I would lose my relevance.

Darius watched me carefully but didn’t interrupt.

I exhaled loudly.

“…One trip,” I said finally.

His brows lifted slightly.

“One trip,” I repeated. “To see what you actually want. And if I decide you’re deceiving me…”

“You’ll stab me,” he finished.

“Glad we understand each other.”

For the first time, something like approval crossed his face.

“Pack what you need,” Darius said quietly. “We leave before sunrise.”