The scent of scorched earth lingered long after the battle had ended. Smoke curled lazily into the gray sky above the ruins of the Emberfang camp. Ashes mixed with blood soaked the forest floor. And through it all, Ember stood motionless, her flame dulled, her body trembling, her bond to Kael flickering like a dying ember.
Something had shifted.
Something within her had cracked.
Kael approached her slowly, his steps heavy, his side still bound from the wounds he'd taken. "Ember…" His voice was low, almost broken. "What happened back there? That fire"
"It wasn't just mine," she whispered.
He paused. "What do you mean?"
"I felt her," Ember said, one hand resting on her belly. "Our daughter. She reached for the flame. She fed it. Controlled it. But it wasn't… it wasn't pure. It was something darker. Wilder."
A silence fell between them, thick and uneasy.
Kael's brow furrowed. "You think she broke the bond?"
"No," Ember said slowly, turning to face him. "I think someone else did."
That night, the forest pulsed with unease. The air was thick, not with fear but with magic. Forbidden, ancient, broken magic. Ember awoke in a cold sweat, her hand instinctively grasping her mate's mark. It burned. Not with warmth, but with cold like ice laced with venom.
She sat up, gasping.
Kael stirred beside her, but his hand never reached for her.
Because he couldn't feel her anymore.
She blinked. "Kael…"
He turned his head toward her, confusion in his eyes.
"I can't feel you," she whispered.
Neither could he.
The mate bond that had once pulsed like a second heartbeat between them now felt… distant. Hollow. As if someone had taken a blade and carved out the part that tethered their souls together.
Kael was on his feet instantly. "We need to find out who did this."
Ronan stormed in a moment later, breathless. "You both need to come. Now. It's about the Seer."
The old Seer, a once-banished wolf with cloudy eyes and a voice like the wind through bones, had been waiting for them by the altar of ruins. She looked older than time, wrapped in cloaks made of faded fur and bark, her bare feet caked in ash.
"I warned you," she rasped, without turning. "The cursed moon would not pass without demanding its price."
Kael stiffened. "You knew this would happen?"
"I saw it," she answered. "In fire. In blood. In the reflection of a bond too bright to endure."
"What happened to our bond?" Ember asked.
The Seer turned to her slowly. "You are no longer bound by fate. You are now bound by choice."
Ember's heart clenched. "That's not possible."
"Oh, but it is," the Seer said. "Someone has interfered. Broken what should have been eternal. They've weakened you both in the hope of separating your power, splitting your strength before your daughter is born."
Kael's jaw locked. "Who?"
The Seer's blind eyes gleamed. "The one who wears a wolf's skin but holds no soul."
Ember's breath caught. She had heard stories of him being the Bond Breaker.
An ancient being cast out from the first packs. A wolf who had once defied the gods themselves by severing mate bonds, stripping lovers of their sacred ties. They said his howl could unmake a bond mid-bite. That his presence could turn fate cold.
"I thought he was a myth," Ember whispered.
"No myth," the Seer said. "And he's watching. Waiting. Your bond was only the beginning."
"Why now?" Kael asked. "Why come after us?"
"Because your child's bond will be unlike anything the world has seen. She will not just love, she will command bonds. Heal them. Break them. She is the key to rewriting the rules the Council has lived by for centuries. And that terrifies them."
Ember looked down at her belly, her fire dimmed by the weight of those words.
Kael reached for her hand. "We have to get it back. Our bond."
"There's only one way," the Seer said. "You must face him. And you must defeat him."
"Where is he?" Ember asked.
The Seer slowly raised a trembling hand toward the west. "Beyond the Wyrmspire Mountains. Where no light touches. Where wolves go to forget who they are. He waits in the Ruins of Reverence."
Kael's gaze darkened. "Then that's where we go."
They left that same night.
It was no easy journey. The land beyond the Emberfang territory was twisted and dead, as if the very ground had been cursed. The moon hung blood-red in the sky as they climbed through jagged peaks and narrow valleys where whispers echoed with no source.
Ember could feel her power waning. Every day they moved farther from the bond, the harder it became to summon her fire. Kael could barely shift anymore, his wolf weakened, his instincts dulled.
It was working.
The Bond Breaker's curse was spreading.
By the time they reached the ruins, the wind screamed with voices not their own. Half-buried statues of wolves and mates, their arms outstretched toward the heavens, lay shattered in the soil.
At the center of it all stood a figure.
Draped in gray, hooded, unmoving.
"You seek what you've lost," he said, his voice ancient and cruel. "But what is lost is not always meant to be found."
Kael growled, stepping forward. "You will return our bond."
The figure laughed, a sound that cracked the very sky.
"No, Alpha Kael. I didn't steal your bond. She gave it up."
Ember gasped. "What?"
The Bond Breaker stepped forward, revealing eyes like obsidian cold, endless. "She called out with doubt in her heart. She questioned fate. And so I came. I offered her freedom."
"I never " Ember's voice faltered.
"You felt it," he said, turning to her. "The fear. The weight. The what-if. You whispered it into the flames. And the flames answered."
Ember's knees nearly buckled.
Had she done this? Had a moment of weakness… opened the door?
Kael stepped between them. "This bond was forged in war. In love. It was earned. You will not take that from us."
The Bond Breaker raised a hand. "Then take it back."
And with that, the ruins shattered into flame.
Chains of light erupted around them, dragging Kael and Ember into separate spheres of fire. The challenge had begun.
To reclaim what they had lost, they would have to fight not just him…
But their doubts. Their fears. And each other.
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And in the end, would their love be enough to rekindle what fate had once blessed—and what darkness had torn apart