Chapter 169: Catch Me

Chapter 169: Chapter 169: Catch Me

Sebastian accelerated.

Nero watched the older car pull farther ahead and pressed down harder on the accelerator without thinking twice.

The new car answered with a surge powerful enough to push him back into the seat.

He had never driven it before.

Royal security had kept him out of a driver’s seat on public roads since he became Crown Prince, and although he had driven extensively before twenty-one, five years had passed since he had been allowed this much speed beneath his own hands.

Tonight, none of that survived contact with the sight of Sebastian’s taillights disappearing around the next bend.

Nero leaned back into his chair, both hands locked around the wheel, wedding ring catching the passing lights.

Sebastian was leaving him.

The rational part of Nero’s mind supplied every correction immediately. Sebastian had asked for an hour. He had explicitly said he was not leaving the marriage. He was furious and wanted enough distance to regain control before they hurt each other further.

Nero understood all of that.

His instincts understood only the car moving away with his mate in it.

The road descending from Altera broadened as it joined the main highway, traffic increasing despite the late hour, and Sebastian used it immediately. He slipped past the first car with enough speed to make its headlights disappear behind him, cut back into the lane, and overtook another before Nero had finished closing the distance.

Nero followed.

His phone vibrated against his chest.

Once. Again.

He ignored it.

The older car moved farther ahead and disappeared briefly behind a transport vehicle.

For three seconds, Nero could not see it.

His stomach dropped so violently that smoke escaped from beneath his cuffs.

When Sebastian’s taillights appeared again on the other side, relief lasted less than a heartbeat before anger swallowed it.

"Stop."

Sebastian accelerated instead.

Nero’s jaw tightened.

A sedan ahead moved aside as Nero approached; whether from recognizing the vehicle or simply seeing the speed at which it was coming did not matter. He passed it, crossed behind another car, and pushed harder until Sebastian was only several vehicles ahead.

The road had become a ribbon of headlights and reflected paint.

Sebastian started using them.

Nero saw the pattern quickly.

He was not simply trying to gain distance anymore. He was trying to make Nero lose visual contact.

The older car slipped between two vehicles, emerged into the next lane, accelerated past another group, and crossed back just before the space closed.

Nero’s breathing deepened.

"Sebastian."

The name sounded wrong in the empty cabin.

Ahead, Sebastian did it again.

A dark SUV and a silver car were traveling nearly parallel, leaving only a narrow opening between them as one began to fall behind the other.

Sebastian aimed directly for it.

Nero’s eyes widened.

"No."

The old car shot through the gap.

For one second, its mirrors seemed almost level with the vehicles on either side. Horns exploded behind it. The silver car swerved away, brake lights flashing, while Sebastian emerged onto the open road and accelerated as if nothing had happened.

Nero’s heart slammed against his ribs.

Fear arrived so hard it became rage before he had time to separate the two.

"You fucking idiot."

Sebastian had done it deliberately.

Nero knew him well enough to understand exactly what he had just seen. Sebastian had measured the opening, recognized it was barely sufficient, and chosen it precisely because Nero’s larger new car might not follow.

The calculation might have worked on someone sane.

Nero was rapidly losing interest in sanity.

He took the same opening.

The SUV was already correcting toward its lane when Nero reached it. He forced the new car through, metal close enough on either side that the world became headlights, horns, and the hard vibration of the wheel beneath his hands.

He emerged behind Sebastian.

The older car visibly jerked as Sebastian checked the mirror.

Nero saw his dark head turn.

Their eyes could not meet at this distance.

It felt like they did.

Sebastian accelerated again.

Something inside Nero loosened.

The part of him that had spent years being reasonable because Sebastian demanded it. The part that had accepted refusals, distance, Palatine, carefully rationed visits, and every polite boundary Sebastian put between them because pushing too hard might make him disappear completely.

Nero had endured all of it because somewhere at the end there had always been the possibility that Sebastian might finally choose him.

Sebastian had chosen him.

He had stood beside Nero yesterday and said I do.

Nero had a ring on his hand.

His husband had slept against his chest last night.

And now Sebastian was running.

Again.

Nero could not return to the version of his life where Sebastian existed somewhere else, and Nero survived on glimpses.

He could not.

The highway curved around a low ridge. Sebastian overtook two more vehicles in quick succession, using every opening before Nero could close it, and Nero followed with less caution each time. Horns sounded behind them. Someone flashed their lights. One car pulled abruptly toward the shoulder.

Nero barely noticed.

His entire world had narrowed to a pair of red taillights.

"Enough."

Sebastian did not slow.

The old car moved around another vehicle and disappeared briefly.

Smoke gathered around Nero’s hands.

This time he did not suppress it.

The dark scent of burning wood filled the cabin, thickened, and began slipping through the seams around the dashboard and doors, his pheromones responding to instinct before thought had fully caught up.

Nero saw Sebastian again.

Closer now.

The road ahead opened into a long descending stretch toward the lights of the smaller Saharian city.

Traffic thinned.

There would be fewer cars between them.

Sebastian realized it too.

He increased speed.

Nero did the same.

The distance shrank.

Nero could see the shape of Sebastian’s shoulders through the rear glass now, rigid above the seat; he could imagine his hands wrapped around the wheel and the furious set of his mouth.

For one moment, Nero saw the hallway again.

Sebastian stepping away when Nero reached for him.

I need to get away from you.

His vision sharpened.

No.

The thought arrived without language after that, becoming something physical, a refusal that spread from his chest into his hands and down his spine.

Sebastian could be furious at him.

Sebastian could hate what he had done.

He could hit Nero until every bone in his face broke, scream until his voice disappeared, spend weeks making him earn back every inch of trust Nero had destroyed tonight.

He could not disappear down a road where Nero could not reach him.

The new car gained another few meters.

Sebastian swerved farther across the lane.

Nero followed.

His pheromones spread beyond the vehicle now, smoke slipping low across the asphalt in dark ribbons that moved far too quickly for wind.

He could feel Sebastian through them.

Nero’s own pulse steadied.

He knew the older car better than Sebastian did.

He knew its reinforced frame, its weight, the modifications around the cabin built years ago to protect his own oversized body. He knew where Sebastian sat within it and how much structure surrounded him.

And Nero had one advantage no ordinary driver would ever possess.

His pheromones could hold him.

Nero’s mouth parted as his breathing slowed.

The smoke thickened.

It rushed forward along the road, reached the older car, and curled around it until Nero could feel the outline of Sebastian’s body inside the cabin.

Sebastian glanced into the mirror.

Nero saw the movement.

The old car accelerated again.

Nero smiled.

"You’re not getting away from me."