Chapter 5 Warning
Mist clung to the ground like breath over glass. Aria sat near the dying fire, staring at the faint silver mark still glowing on her wrist, a mark she hadn’t asked for, a bond she didn’t want.
Every time she looked at it, she could almost feel him.
Lucian.
He stood a few feet away, leaning against the doorway of Maeve’s hut, arms crossed and eyes fixed on her. The first light of dawn painted his hair in shades of iron and gold, but his expression was unreadable, it was controlled, like a man who’d spent too long mastering the beast inside him.
Aria tore her gaze away. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” Lucian asked, his voice was low, deep enough to make the air shift.
“Like you know what’s happening to me.”
Lucian didn’t move. “Maybe I do.”
Aria rose abruptly, the cloak around her shoulders slipping loose. “Then tell me how to break it. Whatever this is—this bond—it’s wrong.”
Maeve’s voice came from behind them, it was weary but sharp. “It’s not wrong, child. It’s ancient.”
The witch stepped into the light, her staff tapping softly against the floor. “When the Moon joins two souls without the mating vow, it’s not out of mercy. It’s a tether born from necessity or a prophecy.”
Aria frowned. “Prophecy?”
Maeve’s gaze shifted between her and Lucian. “Two wolves, born of betrayal and exile, carrying opposite halves of the same curse. When their paths cross, the Moon binds them as light and shadow, strength and ruin. If either tries to break the bond…”
She trailed off.
Lucian’s voice was flat. “What happens?”
Maeve’s eyes turned grim. “The Moon reclaims what she owns.”
Silence. The fire crackled weakly.
Aria’s stomach twisted. “Meaning?”
Maeve met her gaze. “Your souls would burn out. Both of you. The bond keeps you alive now, Aria. The same energy that gave you back your life is shared with him. Break it and you’ll both fall.”
Aria stepped back, shaking her head. “No. That can’t be true.”
Lucian’s expression didn’t change, but his fists clenched at his sides. “It’s the price of the Moon’s meddling. I should’ve known.”
Aria turned to him sharply. “Don’t pretend this doesn’t matter. I didn’t choose to be bound to you. I don't want to be bound to anyone.”
He met her glare calmly. “You think I wanted this? I’ve spent years trying to stay out of the Goddess’s games. Now she has tied me to a Luna who wants revenge like I do.”
“If you don't want this too, then stay away from me!” she snapped.
He took a slow step forward. “If I could, I would.”
The words landed like a blow. The air between them seemed to have thicken, and they felt a pull, deep and undeniable. Aria could feel his heartbeat again, echoing against her own. Each thrum of his pulse sent warmth through her chest, sharp and confusing.
“Stop it,” she whispered.
Lucian’s jaw tightened. “It’s not me.”
Maeve sighed, lowering herself into her chair. “The bond’s awakening. The more you fight it, the stronger it grows. The Moon loves irony.”
Aria pressed a trembling hand to her chest. The warmth turned to heat, then fire. Images flickered behind her eyes: Lucian’s wolf in the dark, its golden eyes watching hers; the feeling of power rushing through her when he’d touched her. The echo of something ancient whispering between their souls.
She gasped. “Get out of my head!”
Lucian’s voice was rough now. “I’m not in it.”
Their gazes met, and the bond surged again, brightly and almost blinding. For one wild heartbeat, she saw through him: a glimpse of loneliness, of exile and blood on snow. He saw her pain also in return; Kael’s betrayal, her death, her rebirth.
Then the connection snapped, leaving them both breathless.
Lucian turned away first. “You feel it too, then.”
“I feel nothing,” she lied.
Maeve chuckled softly, though her eyes were sad. “You can lie to him, girl, but not to the bond. It doesn’t understand denial.”
Aria clenched her fists. “So what am I supposed to do? Pretend it doesn’t exist?”
“No,” Maeve said. “You learn to live with it. Or it consumes you both.”
Aria wanted to scream. Instead, she stepped outside, pushing past the suffocating walls of the hut. The air outside was sharp and cold. She leaned against a tree, breathing hard, fighting the storm inside her.
Footsteps followed.
Lucian stopped a few feet behind her, giving her space. “I didn’t ask for this any more than you did,” he said quietly. “But if we’re bound, we’ll need to understand what it means. Or others will use it against us.”
Aria didn’t turn. “You think I’ll ever trust you?”
“No,” he said simply. “But you might have to. Our souls are bound. If you die, I die too. Likewise if I die, you die too.”
She looked over her shoulder then, studying him in the soft light. The exile. The outcast. The man most packs feared, and somehow, that same man is the only one keeping her alive.
“I don’t want to need you,” she whispered.
Lucian’s expression softened just enough to be human. “Then don’t. Just survive. For now, that’s enough.”
He turned to go back inside, but before he could, her mark pulsed faintly again in her wrist. His eyes flicked to it, and she felt it, that shared heartbeat, that echo of something deeper than either of them wanted to admit.
For one fragile moment, neither moved.
Then Maeve’s voice drifted from inside the hut, low and ominous:
> “Be careful, you two. The Moon doesn’t bind wolves for love… she binds them for purpose. And when that purpose is fulfilled, she would takes back what she gave.”
Aria’s breath caught. Lucian’s gaze darkened.
Neither spoke again, but both knew one truth as the first rays of sunlight broke through the mist.
The bond between them was no blessing.
It was a warning.
