Noah squeaked against the gag. Neither from pain nor panic, but from how Shery’s shoulder kept pressing against her gut with every lunge the gray-skinned maiden made. The dark streets around them were a slush of mud. Every step her handler took was another loud splash that betrayed their location to their pursuers. And the guards weren’t too far off.

They’d tried to get into the city of Aubria unnoticed.

They’d failed. Mark had been too tense, a stink of nerves prompted the guards to look more closely into the fake documentation. They made a run for it before their chance of escape was lost entirely.

And now, the only reason they’d yet to catch up was Brye.

Noah couldn’t sense the fox, but she could certainly feel the illusions that were being liberally cast all around them. Screams, flashes of light, crunching noises, odd nauseating scents. It was coming in a sensory cacophony that threatened to overwhelm even her. Each wrong turn the guards took bought them precious seconds. Each meter they could put ahead of the chasers was another gasp of air.

For Mark.

Bound and gagged, Noah could do little more than pay attention to their surroundings. And if there was one thing her powers were picking up on, it was the sense of desperate self-loathing from Mark. The human whose thoughts and emotions were usually a simmering storm had constantly been panicked in some way. Fear of ferals, fear of guards, fear of Brye and Shery, even fear of Noah. He’d likely sleep with one eye open if he could.

After weeks stuck with little to do other than sit around and endure the effects of the lepi berry three times a day, Noah had had the chance to focus a lot of her effort into the psychic abilities her breed was renowned for. And Mark was the perfect target. The powerful bond that kept them connected was a good starting point. And right now, she could read him like a book.

Right now there was no hesitation in his emotions.

Mark’s thoughts were a blade aimed at his own throat. He had put them at risk. His actions raised the alarm from the guards, made them suspicious. Now they were running, hoping to lose them before slinking off into the safe-house. And the human was slowing them down. Thank the drowned gods that the city of Aubria was so stretched for resources, or this chase would have ended already.

With not much to do but fight back against the instinctual panic of all mice, Noah tried to look at the city around her and see if there was anything about it that would feel familiar.

The last time she’d been here, she was human, and a male for that matter. These very streets had seen her grow from the half-starved homeless man all the way to someone working for the Boss. As a human, Noah had made many enemies. Very few were left alive. What would happen if any found her as she was now? Would escaping even be possible?

Voices shouted out, Mark and Shery cursed under their breaths, their emotions were so loud Noah didn’t even need to put effort to feel the apprehension and fear. And suddenly Noah felt herself falling. She shrieked against the gag, mind reeling as she slammed the ground, mud splattering all around.

Shery had dropped her, sprinting harder.

Dead weight.

Noah could hear the pursuers catching up. They’d spot her, imprison her, and then who-.

A hand yanked her from the mud, dragging her out of the way. That same hand covered her mouth as flickering lights and screaming ran past.

Noah didn’t register the pursuers, eyes wide, glued to the man that was currently pinning her to the wall. Mark was focused on the guards that had barely missed them, his hand pressed against her gagged lips, his other hand pressing her firmly to the wall as he loomed over her. This close, she could see the stains of mud on his fiery red hair under the hood, she could count the freckles of brown in his green eyes. His scent was all around her, overwhelming that of the dirt and grime and blood and shit. His touch was a firm pressure against her skin, his heart beat so fast she could both hear it and sense it in his touch.

The world began to shrink, blurring around the edges.

Mark turned to meet Noah’s eyes and suddenly there was nothing else around them. The question of why he’d saved her just then vanished. There was a burning possessiveness in his mind that snuffed out any doubt. Noah’s chest tightened. Her heart skipped several beats and proceeded to return faster than before. Across her mind flashed every time he’d fed her lepi, the burning arousal in his eyes as her hands trailed over her desperately sensitive body.

They were running for their lives and she couldn’t stop thinking of wanting to remove the gag that separated his hand from her face.

Noah tried to give the emotion reason, to control it. This was the bond messing with her, this was the insidious nature of a maiden’s curse, doubly so as she was a Tigermouse, possessing a body that craved to be touched. The bindings around her wrists and legs bit into her soft skin and everything inside Noah roared in complaint at her inability to reach out to her human.

If they were going to catch them, if they were going to capture them, then…

“Don’t move.”

The command was a leash, stiffening her limbs and turning them to stone. Out of sheer habit, Noah fought against the command, to break it in some small personal way to prove she could. But the effort felt like a token gesture that was quickly forgotten. Noah realized her wrists had been released only a moment later, her ankles followed, and her gag was removed without much fanfare. Dimly she noted this was the first time nothing had been restraining her ever since the waterfall.

Ever since her attempt to kill Mark and herself, this was the first gasp of true freedom.

The knot and regret that formed in her stomach at the memory was also the bond, she knew, but that one was far easier to push down and ignore.

“Move.”

Another order, another little jolt to her heart. Noah tried to ignore the soft throb on her wrists and ankles, or how the cool air brushed against her naked body, or how she could hear Mark’s short breaths. He was nervous, but in control. The thought that said control extended to her was savagely pushed aside. They were in danger, she had to remind herself they were in danger, that the entrapment hadn’t fully closed around them. That there was a way out.

Noah’s steps were unsteady, the mud was cold, and she had not walked on her own in weeks. Her body was ready, but her mind wasn’t. Mark did not wait for her to adjust though, grabbing her hand with his own, warmth spreading through her at that simple touch as he pulled them both through the town. She was reeling, trying to get back to her senses. Weeks of lepi and boredom had dulled her, fixated her on Mark, she had to-.

“Danger.”

She spoke the word before she could consciously make out where the danger was coming from. Her senses had simply sounded the alarm, and immediately she moved to pin Mark against the wall. To protect him. She had to protect him. The command was more like a need inside her, no different to the need for air.

His chest was broad, his body was hot, hotter than hers, the smell of his sweat tickled at something within her. She pushed her focus away from the craving for touch, towards the stomping sounds that followed two streets over. More guards had rushed their way through, entirely ignoring them. Noah sensed Brye just at the edges of her senses, but the fox was gone before she could even confirm it.

At some level, she knew that Brye was also protecting Mark.

“Let go.”

Noah immediately stepped back. She’d been looking straight up into Mark’s eyes. His order had rumbled through his chest and down her arms. The adrenaline was thickening in her blood, and her heart was beating harder. Her traitorous mind fed her the image of him pinning her to the wall.

“Move.”

Another order. Her instincts began kicking in, and this time she found it easier to follow because she agreed. Moving was better than letting her mind fall into the fantasy. She grasped his hand and pulled, ears moving on their own without her input, feet scurrying across the ground with only instinct to guide them. Conscious thought felt like it had become a luxury she couldn’t afford. Each movement was easier than the previous one, her mind stretching and coiling around in search of danger.

The act was so natural it was like falling into a lake and discovering you’d known how to swim all along.

Danger found them all around, all at once. At least a dozen different guards, moving near or towards them. None were aware of their exact location. But the one thing that Noah could sense from them all was that they knew the human was somewhere nearby.

More alarms rang within Noah’s mind, and she slammed Mark out of the way as a shadow emerged in the air between them.

“I’m taking you.”

It was Brye, the fox’s emotion sheltered and invisible, her hand grasping Mark.

“Wait, d-.”

He was gone, she was gone, and Noah was left alone in the street.

It took her several seconds to realize she was alone. Conscious thought came back with a rush, a stampede of thought. She was alone, unbound, free. Her head whipped to look around. She was free, on her own. There was danger, but escape wasn’t impossible, escape was never impossible.

Finally.

Her opportunity had come.