Chapter 60

Cora

I splashed cold water on my face and stared into the mirror, barely recognizing the woman looking back at me.

My eyes were red and swollen. My skin was pale. I looked like someone running from more than just a pack. I looked like someone running from herself.

I had to keep going.

I padded out into the main room, careful not to wake Riley. He was curled up like a wolf pup under the threadbare comforter, one hand gripping his stuffed dragon, his lips parted as he dreamed.

He stirred as I began packing. “Mommy?”

I knelt beside him. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m just getting our things ready. We’re going on another adventure, remember?”

He nodded sleepily, still half in a dream. “Will there be pancakes?”

My throat tightened. “Maybe,” I said gently. “If we find the right place.”

He smiled sleepily and pushed himself up. “Will we have to travel for a lot longer?”

Something in my chest pulled at the question. I was putting him through so much.

“Maybe just a bit more, buddy. Can you keep being brave for me?”

He swiped sleep lazily from his eyes. “Duh.”

I waited until he was fed and settled with his tablet before finishing the task. There wasn’t much to take. Just the essentials that had been scattered throughout the space within the recent hours: Riley’s things, some cash, the burner phone, false documents, and the emergency stash I’d packed weeks ago when the threats first started trickling in.

I had left everything else to burn back at the apartment.

“What’s this, Mommy?” Riley asked suddenly. He was pointing to his tablet.

There on the screen was a face I did not miss.

Amy.

I pulled the tablet from him gently and turned up the volume. Amy was being interviewed by a local news crew as my apartment smoldered and smoked behind her shoulder.

“She was always a bit off the rails,” Amy was saying. “No one could really trust her. It wouldn’t surprise me if she lit the fire out of guilt after all of the recent investigations she’s been under.”

Amy lifted a tissue to dab at her eyes even though they were dry. “And now her ex-husband is dead… that’s convenient! It’s just a shame. I mean, the real victim here is that poor, sweet boy because who knows what she did with him. I just hope he’s ok!”

I gritted my teeth. I had not forgotten how she and Zach had called Riley a bastard before.

Amy was probably thrilled by the news. For the first time, I wished I could return purely out of spite. But of course, I had to keep going and let Amy continue her miserable lie of a life without me to harass.

“It’s nothing, buddy,” I told Riley, swiping out of the newscast. “We won’t have to see her again.”

And I would make sure of that.

When I lifted Riley into my arms, he snuggled against me, unaware his world was changing again.

We slipped into the night like shadows.

The car engine sputtered to life, and I glanced once at the motel through the rearview mirror before pulling away. There was no turning back.

We drove for hours, the dark highway stretching endlessly ahead. The headlights carved a narrow path through fog and drizzle. I kept one eye on the road, the other on the rearview. Every car that came too close, every signpost that blurred past, made my pulse spike.

I half expected Kingston to appear in the rearview mirror. To flash his Alpha King status, pool his resources, and find me.

Or worse—someone from Silverfang might be following. Once, I might have even considered Zach crazy enough to follow.

But no one came.

There was just the quiet drone of the wind passing the car and of tires on wet asphalt while Riley softly breathed behind me.

He was my anchor. My reason.

But the ache in my chest? That was Kingston.

I felt horrible guilt for Kingston and terror over what I had done to Zach.

I had killed my ex-husband by accident, and I had left Kingston to grieve a lie. I truly was unforgivable.

I imagined Kingston finding the burned apartment. The scene I’d left behind. The wreckage. Did he think I was a killer now?

Did he know—did he feel it—when the bond between us frayed but didn’t quite break?

I clenched the steering wheel tighter.

Kingston had given me nothing but love. He had promised to protect me, and I had run anyway. Not because I didn’t trust him… but because I knew that love wouldn’t save Riley. Not from the Silverfang pack. Not from the politics of bloodlines and hybrid threats.

They would use Kingston against me. Or worse—Riley against him.

I couldn’t let that happen.

So I had become the villain in both their stories.

Hours passed. The sun began to rise somewhere behind heavy clouds. A soft glow filtered through the windshield, painting the world in gold and gray.

Riley stirred again in the backseat.

“Where are we now?” he asked groggily.

“Somewhere safe,” I murmured. “Somewhere new.”

He rubbed his eyes. “Do they have cartoons here?”

I forced a smile. “Absolutely. And maybe pancakes.”

That seemed to satisfy him.

But nothing could satisfy the hollow space in me where Kingston lived. No amount of distance or silence would erase it.

We stopped at a gas station briefly, and Riley bounded inside, grateful to not be in the car for a bit.

“Can I pick something?” Riley asked, already bouncing toward the freezers at the far end of the store.

“Just one thing, okay? And something small. We’ve still got a long way to go,” I said.

He didn’t answer; he was too focused. Cora watched as he stood on tiptoes, opening the frosted glass door and peering in at the rainbow of popsicles. His fingers hovered over the mango-flavored one, orange and bright like the summer sun.

“No,” I snapped. “Absolutely not.”

Riley snatched away his hand like the packaging had been on fire, and I immediately felt awful about my outburst.

And suddenly I was thinking about Kingston again. About the potential revelation that had never found its way back to him. About Riley possibly being his son.

I was protecting him, I reminded myself again. I was giving him a clean break. I was saving them both.

But it didn’t feel like salvation. It felt like punishment.

Riley decided on a strawberry popsicle, and when we got back out on the road, I drove until the tank ran low again and the road signs blurred into unfamiliar names. I found a quiet town just south of the border. Not too big. Not too small. Just invisible enough.

I rented another room under a different alias and carried Riley inside, his small arms wrapped around my neck.

He looked up at me as I tucked him into bed.

“Are we gonna stay here a long time, Mommy?”

I brushed his hair back. “Maybe. Just long enough to rest.”

“Okay.” He smiled. “I like it when we’re together.”

I kissed his forehead, my eyes burning.

“I like that too, buddy.”

I stepped out onto the motel balcony after he fell asleep. The wind was cool and carried the scent of wildflowers and rain.

“You did what you had to,” I whispered into the night. “You protected him.”

Still, the guilt lingered. Zach’s death clung to me like soot under my skin.

I hadn’t meant for anyone to die.

But intent didn’t erase consequences.

I had set the fire. I had made the choice. And I would carry the weight of it for the rest of my life.

Maybe someday I’d find forgiveness. Maybe I’d even find peace.

But not today.

Tonight, I was just a mother running from ghosts, clinging to the last thing she hadn’t yet lost.

And as the stars blinked through the clouds overhead, I let myself whisper a final thought into the wind, knowing it would never reach the man I loved.

“I’m sorry, Kingston. I hope you live. I hope you heal. I hope you find someone who never runs.”