Chapter 29 – The Lioness and the Quiet Storm
(Luka's POV)
He heard them before he saw them.
Not their voices—those had fallen quiet sometime during the night—but their hearts. Two rhythms, pulsing in sync, echoing in the silence that only morning could carry. The kind of silence that followed something sacred, irreversible.
Luka sat at the edge of the clearing, sharpening his blade though it didn't need it. The soft scrape of stone against metal was easier than thought. Easier than feeling.
The bond had settled. He could taste it in the air—the faint hum of power that rippled between Maise and Nox like heat from a flame. Every beastman could sense it. It was instinct, undeniable and primal.
He closed his eyes for a moment, drawing in the scent of earth, smoke, and her. It lingered everywhere.
Maise.
She had always been fire—restless, untamed, alive. But now, her flame burned steadier, anchored. The connection between her and Nox had changed something in her eyes; not softness, but weight. A kind of peace he'd never seen before.
And it twisted something deep in his chest.
He'd never once thought of claiming her, not like Nox had. His instincts weren't the kind that demanded, they simply... waited. But seeing her bound, marked, claimed—it struck him harder than he expected.
Not because he was jealous. No. It was because part of him had always believed she was beyond being claimed at all.
"Still brooding?"
Nox's voice drifted over, low and even. Luka didn't look up at first. When he did, the lion was standing across the fire, his dark hair tied back, his eyes steady and unreadable. The faint scar at his throat—Maise's mark—caught the light.
Luka grunted. "Just thinking."
"About her?"
He didn't answer, and Nox didn't need him to.
The lion crouched opposite him, the firelight catching the faint gleam of his fangs when he spoke. "You don't have to hide it. We're bound now. All of us feel it."
Luka met his gaze. "I know. Doesn't make it any easier."
Something passed between them then—understanding, sharp and quiet. The kind of understanding only males who'd fought beside each other could share.
"She's still Maise," Nox said finally, voice softer now. "Still the same fire that keeps us from going feral."
Luka nodded, his throat tight. "I know. I just—" He exhaled through his teeth, looking away toward the horizon where the sun was bleeding through the clouds. "—I just hope she doesn't burn herself out trying to hold all of us together."
Nox's gaze softened. "She won't. She was born for this."
Luka looked down at his hands, calloused and steady despite the ache in his chest. "Yeah," he murmured, almost to himself. "I think that's what scares me most."
The two sat in silence after that, the fire snapping between them.
Somewhere beyond the clearing, Maise's laughter drifted through the morning air, low and fierce and alive.
And though the ache remained, Luka smiled.
Because even in the midst of his quiet storm, he couldn't deny the truth—
he'd follow that sound anywhere.