Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2: FOUND YOU
The sequence of lock clicks echoed relentlessly through the freezing night.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
Lillian spun the three worn mechanical locks of the modest suburban cottage hidden deep within the alley. Her hands were trembling violently, the metal key clinking against the lock in an endless, frantic clatter. The detached-lens camera hidden beneath her sweat-dampened leather jacket pressed hard against her wildly heaving chest.
She collapsed against the wooden door, gasping for breath. Plumes of cold air kept puffing out through her teeth. The image of the beast tearing into the deer carcass in the pine forest, paired with those blazing golden eyes, still clawed at her mind with every beat against her temples.
Lillian dragged her leaden steps into the narrow bedroom.
The pale yellow nightlight cast a soft glow over the single bed pushed against the corner. Her thirteen-year-old brother, Toby, was sleeping soundly. Beside his pillow, the nebulizer emitted a steady, rhythmic hiss, puffing a fine mist around the boy’s small, pale face.
Lillian let the camera slip from her fingers onto the rug and dropped to her knees beside the bed. She pulled her brother into a tight embrace, burying her face in the hollow of his neck, greedily seeking out the warmth of family to chase away the lingering terror clinging to her skin.
"Lillian...?" Toby rubbed his eyes, his voice thick with sleep. "Why are you back so late? Your hands... why are they so cold?"
"It’s nothing, Toby..." Lillian whispered, her voice rough and strained. The tears she had held back during her entire frantic escape finally breached her lashes, rolling hotly down her brother’s cheek. She tightened her arms, forcing her voice to stay steady. "The wind outside was just a bit chilly tonight. Go back to sleep. I’ll pick up your new round of medication tomorrow."
The boy gave a sleepy nod, his eyelids drifting shut under the influence of the specialized pulmonary therapy.
Watching her brother’s chest rise and fall in time with the machine, Lillian drew a deep breath. She sat down hard on the ice-cold tile floor, pulled the memory card from her camera, and plugged it into her laptop.
The screen flickered to life. The high-resolution photograph of Kael Ashford burying his face in the deer's throat flashed onto the display in sharp detail. A fresh wave of terror raced down her spine, making her fingers tremble as she dragged the cursor toward the recycle bin.
Pressing delete... or keeping it?
The $1,200 medication bill loomed in her mind like a crushing weight. This photo was her only chance to save Toby, but it was also a death sentence if Kael ever tracked her down.
Her hand froze over the keyboard. Lillian couldn't bring herself to hit delete. Trembling, she safely ejected the drive, pulled the memory card from the laptop, shoved it deep into a crack beneath the bottom of the wardrobe, and locked the doors shut.
As long as she never posted this photo, the secret would sink into oblivion forever, and Toby would be safe.
The following morning, the atmosphere at St. Jude Academy was choked in a dense, freezing fog.
Lillian walked down the tree-lined path leading toward the Department of Pharmaceutical Research building. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles from a sleepless night. Every sound of footsteps crunching on fallen leaves behind her, or the sudden roar of a car engine outside the gates, made her shoulders jerk. She instinctively reached into her leather jacket pocket.
Her right pocket was completely empty.
Her left pocket held only a single house key.
Lillian stopped dead in the middle of the campus courtyard. Frantically, she tore through the compartments of her backpack, flipping open every textbook. Nothing. The student ID card with its red fabric lanyard was gone.
A jolt of cold shot straight up the back of her neck. Did the lanyard snap when she was diving through the dry branches last night...?
Lillian gripped her backpack straps tightly, swallowing hard. The campus had thousands of students; dropping an ID at the edge of the forest last night didn't guarantee anyone would find it. And even if someone did, it would soon be buried under the snow. She tried to steady herself, took a deep breath, and continued toward the main lecture hall lobby.
That comforting illusion vanished the second she pushed through the massive glass doors.
The grand lobby was abnormally packed. Hundreds of students gathered in small clusters, fingers flying across their phones as a buzzing hum of whispers filled the room like a disturbed hive. Right at the center of attention, the crowd automatically parted down the middle, carving out a wide path.
At the far end of the corridor, Kael Ashford was walking toward her.
Gone was the disheveled wildness and the torn number 13 jersey from last night. This morning, the "King of the Ice" wore an oversized black leather jacket, his ash-gray hair falling softly across his forehead to partially shadow his eyes. His stride was unhurried, the heels of his leather boots clicking rhythmically—CLACK… CLACK—against the tiled floor, easily cutting through the surrounding chatter.
The crowd on either side retreated step by step. Kael’s gray gaze swept across the open space before locking dead ahead.
It locked straight onto Lillian.
A wave of explosive whispers instantly erupted around her:
"Oh my god... It’s Kael Ashford! Why is he in the Pharmaceutical Research department?"
"Look at his eyes... That’s terrifying. Is he looking for someone?"
"Who is he staring at? That direction... could it be that pharmacy student?"
Every drop of blood drained from Lillian’s body. She froze in place. Instinct screamed at her to turn and run, but her legs refused to obey her brain.
Kael closed the distance. His towering frame and broad shoulders cast a massive shadow that swallowed Lillian whole. The suffocating, bitter scent of cedarwood cologne washed straight over her—the exact oppressive fragrance lingering in the pine forest the night before.
He stopped just a single step away from her.
"Found you, Hart." Kael’s voice was low and gravelly, cutting cleanly through the dead silence of the hall.
Kael casually slipped one hand into his leather trouser pocket. His free hand raised slowly. Between his long, strong fingers was the St. Jude student ID card, dangling from its snapped red lanyard.
The color vanished entirely from Lillian’s face.
Kael leaned down. The distance between them shrank to mere centimeters. His hot breath brushed against her ice-cold ear.
"I think we need to discuss last night's 'photoshoot'," he murmured, low enough for only the two of them to hear, every syllable heavy with absolute menace.
Just as Kael’s breath brushed against the skin of Lillian’s neck, his rigid shoulders suddenly stiffened. His ash-gray brows twitched. His pupils constricted, and the savage, feral edge in his eyes strangely softened for a fraction of a second. He closed his eyes, inhaling a deep breath as if absorbing the soothing scent of medicinal herbs radiating from her to beat back a punishing ache.
He took another half-step forward, pinning her against the wall of steel lockers behind her.
SLAM.
Kael propped one hand against the locker frame right beside Lillian’s ear, his massive shoulders completely boxing her into the suffocating darkness.
"Follow me. Right now," he commanded, his voice carrying absolute authority.
The crushing pressure of the cold steel wall at her back and the looming darkness choked off her breathing. Terror spiraled out of control into sheer panic.
"Get away from me!"
Lillian cried out, channeling every ounce of her strength into a hard shove against Kael’s iron-hard chest.
The unexpected resistance forced Kael to instinctively step back half a pace to steady himself.
Seizing the opening, Lillian ducked hard under his arm. Clutching her backpack tightly to her chest, she bolted headfirst toward the glass doors of the lecture hall, leaving behind a wake of stunned gasps and pounding footsteps across the tile floor.
The entire pharmacy lobby erupted into chaos.
"What just happened?! Did she just shove Kael Ashford?"
"Who is that girl? How dare she treat the team captain like that?!"
"Did anyone catch that on video? Post it to the campus forum right now!"
Amidst the swirling chaos and the buzzing uproar of hundreds of students, Kael remained standing right where he was.
The arm he had braced against the lockers slowly dropped. Kael leaned his back against the steel cabinet, his gray eyes fixed on the slender silhouette vanishing through the glass doors out into the bright morning sunlight.
The agonizing ringing in his ears that had torn at him since last night finally seemed to dull—eased by the faint, lingering trace of clean herbal fragrance left in the air.
His fingers lightly stroked the broken plastic edge of the ID card in his hand. It still held a faint warmth from her trembling body.
The corners of Kael’s mouth slowly curved into a cold, predatory smirk.
"Run along, Lillian..."
He murmured into the empty space, tightening his grip around the card.
"Let’s see how far you can get."
