Chapter 3: Running For Her Life

"Run, Maya. Run."

The words screamed inside her head.

Maya didn't stop to breathe. Didn't dare look back.

Her heels slammed against the pavement as she tore through the streets, wedding guests' shocked gasps still echoing in her ears. 

Her vision blurred, her chest burned, but she didn't stop.

She couldn't.

She didn't know where she was going, only that she had to go.

And Luca?

He let her.

That was the part that gutted her the most.

He didn't chase her.

Didn't demand an answer. Didn't fight for her.

He let her go.

But somehow… she knew he wouldn't forget.

SIX HOURS LATER

Maya stood outside the Carter estate, soaked from the rain, shaking from the cold.

Her fists pounded against the heavy iron gate. "Let me in."

Nothing.

She hit it again, voice cracking. "Mom, please!"

The door to the grand house opened, and for one blessed second, she thought maybe, just maybe, her mother would have mercy.

Instead, security stepped out. Two of them.

Her mother's voice followed. "You don't live here anymore, Maya."

Her stomach dropped. "I have nowhere else to go."

The guards didn't care.

They grabbed her.

Maya thrashed, panic clawing up her throat.

"No, don't do this. I have nothing! Please!"

Her mother's cold voice sealed her fate. "Then you should've thought of that before betraying this family."

The gates slammed shut.

Maya stood on the other side, shaking, drenched, ruined.

Her family was done with her.

And for the first time in her life…

She felt completely alone.

Maya pulled the hood of her stolen sweatshirt lower, keeping her head down.

It had been a week since she lost everything. 

A week of being homeless.

The streets reeked of alcohol and cigarettes. The neon sign above the shitty bar flickered, casting an eerie glow over the sidewalk.

Her stomach twisted. She hadn't eaten in two days.

Maya hated this. Hated that she had nowhere to go. 

Hated that her entire life had been ripped away in one night.

She rubbed her arms, willing away the cold.

The emptiness.

And then, she felt a shift in the air.

A feeling she knew too well.

Slowly, dread pooling in her stomach, she turned.

And there he was.

Luca Reed.

Leaning against the bar's brick wall, hands in his pockets, golden eyes burning through her like a fucking torch.

Maya's blood ran cold.

"Luca."

He didn't blink. Didn't move.

His voice was cold. "You really thought you could disappear?"

She stepped back.

"How did you—"

"I know everything, Maya."

Maya's breath shuddered. 

This wasn't the Luca she knew. The Luca she had loved. The Luca who once held her like she was his entire world.

This man was something else entirely.

Colder. 

Unforgiving.

But beneath all that fury, she could still see the fracture in him. 

The way his fingers twitched at his sides, like he was fighting something within himself.

He didn't want to hurt her.

But he wanted to make her suffer.

Maya forced herself to hold his stare. "Then why are you here?"

Luca's jaw tightened. "You know damn well why."

She shook her head, stepping back. "No, I don't. If you believe everything Brielle said, then what's the point? You already made your choice at the altar."

His nostrils flared.

"Don't turn this on me, Maya."

She scoffed. "Turn what? That you let me go? That you kissed my sister in front of me?"

Her voice wavered, but she refused to back down. 

"Tell me, Luca. Was it easy? To replace me so fast?"

His body snapped forward. So fast that she didn't even have time to react.

Maya's back hit the brick wall, her breath catching as his hands came up, caging her in.

She had been cold before, but now? Now she was burning.

Luca's eyes weren't golden anymore. 

They were black. Entirely, deeply black.

His wolf had surfaced.

A shiver ran down her spine.

His fingers curled against the wall beside her head, his voice low, dangerous. 

"You think I replaced you?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. 

"Maya, I haven't slept. I haven't eaten. Every time I close my eyes, all I see is you."

Her breath hitched.

His gaze dropped to her lips, his chest rising and falling with ragged breaths.

"Do you have any idea what you did to me?" he whispered.

Maya trembled.

Because she did. She knew exactly what she had done.

And he would never forgive her for it.

"I have nothing left, Luca," she whispered. "What more do you want from me?"

His jaw clenched. "The truth."

Maya's pulse pounded.

Luca stepped closer, his presence swallowing the space between them.

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"I want to hear you say it. Tell me you chose him over me."

Maya's hands curled into fists at her sides.

Her mind screamed at her to run. To get as far away from him as possible.

But her body?

Her body still ached for him.

His scent was intoxicating—earthy, dark, laced with something uniquely Luca.

The bond was gone, but something else still tethered them.

Something neither of them could name.

Her throat went dry. "I—"

She couldn't say it.

Wouldn't.

Luca's fingers suddenly brushed her wrist. A small touch. Barely anything at all.

But Maya flinched like she had been struck.

Because it still affected her.

And he fucking knew it.

Luca's lips parted, his chest rising and falling in deep, uneven breaths. He hadn't meant to touch her. But now that he had—

Now that he saw her react—

He wanted more.

Desperately.

His fingers flexed like he was holding himself back. Like he didn't trust himself.

"Maya," he said her name again, softer this time.

And for one foolish second, she thought maybe, just maybe, he was about to let her go.

But then—

His grip tightened.

And he yanked her forward.

And kissed her.

But not out of love.

It felt like he was punishing her.