Elowen's POV
The mark on my palm hadn't faded.
It pulsed beneath my skin like a second heartbeat—hot, alive, and unforgiving.
I wrapped the edge of my shawl tighter around it as I made my way through the narrow path leading to the village square. The earth beneath my feet felt harder today. The trees leaned away from me, as if the forest itself sensed what was coming.
> Today was supposed to be the beginning of everything.
Today, Lucien was supposed to claim me.
Instead, the air carried tension—crackling and sharp.
They were all watching me. I felt their stares like pinpricks against my back, whispers floating through the fog.
> "She burned the altar."
"That blood isn't pure."
"Even the Moon turned its back on her."
Still, I kept walking. Not because I wasn't afraid—
But because a part of me still believed Lucien wouldn't abandon me.
Lucien, who once braided a flower into my hair and said, "I don't care what blood runs in you. You're mine."
I clung to that memory like it could protect me.
The square was already full when I arrived. Torches blazed against the twilight sky. Elders lined the ceremonial stone, their faces grim. Behind them, pack members stood in silence, shoulder to shoulder, lips tight.
At the center stood Lucien.
He wore his ceremonial cloak, the ash-grey one passed down from his father. The wolf sigil shimmered silver across his chest.
His eyes met mine.
They weren't the eyes of the boy I loved.
No warmth.
No recognition.
Only distance.
"Elowen of Ashclaw," the High Seeress began, her voice carrying in the cold air, "you have completed the Blood Ceremony. Today, you may be claimed, should the bond be recognized and accepted."
I stepped forward.
The crowd held its breath.
Lucien remained perfectly still.
My chest rose and fell in shallow motions. I reached for hope, blindly. For his hand. For the past.
But then—
He stepped back.
"Elowen," he said loud enough for everyone to hear, "I reject the bond."
The words shattered me.
The silence that followed was not kind. It roared in my ears like a storm, louder than any scream.
My mouth parted, but nothing came out. My pulse thundered in my ears.
Lucien didn't even flinch.
"Why?" I finally asked, my voice a broken whisper.
Lucien looked over me, not at me.
"You brought danger to this pack. The altar flared under your blood. You carry something unnatural—tainted. I cannot bind myself to someone the Moon no longer recognizes."
Every word sliced deeper than the last.
"I didn't choose this," I said. "You know me—"
"I did," he cut in. "Until the thing inside you awakened."
The thing.
He looked at me like I was a sickness.
I reached for his arm. "Lucien, please—"
He jerked away. "Don't touch me."
A quiet gasp rose from the crowd. Mothers pulled children closer. Elders turned their heads. Even the Seeress didn't meet my gaze.
Heat flushed my face. Shame. Anger. Betrayal.
I wanted to run—but I couldn't. My feet were stone. My throat closed.
He was supposed to be my mate.
He was supposed to love me.
"Is there no challenge?" the Seeress asked, her voice weary.
Lucien's reply came like ice. "No. The rejection stands."
He turned away.
And just like that, it was over.
I had been dismissed. Not just by him—but by everyone.
A low murmur passed through the crowd like wind through brittle leaves.
"She's cursed."
"She should be exiled."
"She'll bring ruin if she stays."
Their voices were knives. And I had no armor left.
I stumbled backward, hands trembling.
That's when I felt it.
A sudden warmth deep in my chest, rising like a tide.
Not from anyone around me—but from far away.
My palm burned softly beneath the fabric.
A pulse.
A pull.
> Kael.
The name wasn't spoken aloud. But it echoed through me like a heartbeat. The same feeling I had when he touched my face. The same fire I saw in his eyes.
Even now, even here, he was reaching for me.
And gods help me… I reached back.
The bond wasn't just waking.
It was choosing.
My eyes stung with tears.
"Elowen," a voice called behind me—Lucien's mother, maybe—but I didn't turn back.
I ran.
Not toward the woods. Not toward home.
I ran until the torches vanished behind me, until the stone path gave way to moss and shadow.
Until the trees swallowed me whole.
---
I didn't know how long I ran, or when the tears started. I only knew the hurt didn't stop once I left the square.
My chest was tight. My breath came in gasps. My skin felt too small for the grief inside me.
I collapsed at the edge of the forest, falling against the roots of an ancient tree. My fingers dug into the earth as I choked on sobs.
I wasn't crying for Lucien anymore.
I was crying for the girl I thought I was. The one who belonged. The one who was loved.
She was gone now.
And something else was waking in her place.
---
The forest was quiet.
Fog thickened around me, soft and cold. The air held a strange stillness, like the land itself was listening.
The mark on my palm glowed again—faint, but steady.
I looked down.
And I felt him.
Not his voice. Not words.
But a sensation.
A warmth threading through the cold.
> You're not alone.
I closed my eyes.
In the darkness, I saw him.
Kael.
His face in the mist. His fingers brushing mine. His gaze—intense, haunted, full of something raw and real.
I could almost feel his presence—like he stood behind me, just out of reach.
> Come to me.
The whisper wasn't from his lips—but from somewhere deeper. Older.
And I knew what I had to do.
---
When I rose, the wind shifted.
No longer biting.
Welcoming.
My legs still trembled, but they carried me north. Toward Hollowveil.
Toward him.
The one who hadn't cast me aside.
The one whose blood called to mine like a forgotten song.
I didn't know what I would find in that cursed forest. I didn't know what Kael truly was, or what the bond between us meant.
But I knew this:
Whatever was inside me—whatever power, curse, or bloodline they feared—
He wasn't afraid of it.
He had felt it.
And he hadn't run.
Not yet.
Not ever.
I walked deeper into the woods, branches scraping my arms like whispered warnings. My breath came in sharp bursts, each step pulling me further from the life I once knew.
But the farther I went, the lighter I felt.
Not free—never that.
But… seen. Somehow.
The wind whispered through the trees again, curling around my shoulders like a shawl of warmth in the chill. And just for a moment, I imagined arms around me. Not Lucien's. Never again.
But someone else's.
Someone whose presence didn't try to tame me—only understand me.
> Kael.
The name brushed my lips like a prayer, even though I didn't know him.
Didn't truly remember him.
But something inside me did.
A flicker of warmth at the base of my spine. A flash of silver eyes in the dark. A memory that didn't belong to this life—yet felt like home.
I stumbled, hand pressing against a tree to catch my breath.
"Who are you?" I whispered to no one. To him.
No voice answered.
But my palm burned in response. Softly. Longingly. Like it was trying to reach out across space and time.
I clutched it to my chest.
"I don't want to be afraid anymore."
The trees didn't move. The mist didn't part.
But the pain in my chest… lessened.
My breath steadied.
And that was enough.
---
I reached a clearing I didn't recognize—though it felt like I should. Moonlight filtered through the branches in silver ribbons, casting patterns on the grass that looked like runes.
I turned slowly in the center, arms wrapped tight around myself.
And then I felt it.
Not touch.
Not voice.
But something... pulling.
Gentle.
Familiar.
My knees weakened. I sank to the ground, dizzy. My eyes fluttered shut.
And behind my lids, he was there again.
A man cloaked in shadow and light. Eyes like storm clouds. A scar cutting across his lip. A presence I couldn't name but craved more than breath.
Kael.
He didn't speak.
He just looked at me like he knew me.
Not the broken girl from the ceremony. Not the outcast.
But all of me.
Even the parts I hadn't dared to look at yet.
The bond wasn't made with words or oaths.
It was in the silence.
In the way I saw his pain reflected in mine.
In how my fear dimmed the longer he stayed.
And I knew—without understanding how—that I had always been walking toward him.
Maybe Lucien was the first to touch my heart.
But Kael…
Kael was the first to hold it.
Even from afar.
Even in silence.