Chapter 3
Elowen's POV
Kael shouldn't have been there.
That was the first thought that cut through the haze of pain and heat and half-burned fear clogging my chest. The second was worse.
He'd crossed the boundary.
"You're not supposed to be here," I said hoarsely.
My voice scraped out like it had been dragged across stone. My throat still burned from screaming. The cave smelled like scorched earth and blood and something metallic I couldn't place.
Kael didn't step closer.
Didn't step back either.
Moonlight caught his face in sharp lines. The Alpha mask was cracked clean through. What stood in front of me wasn't cold or brutal or controlled.
It was terrified.
"I had to see you," he said. "Before it got worse."
I laughed. It came out ugly and wrong. "You rejected me in front of the entire pack."
"I know."
"You let them strip me," I continued. "You watched."
"I know," he said again, and this time his voice broke.
That snapped something in me.
"You don't get to say that like it means anything," I hissed, pushing myself to my feet. My legs shook, but I stayed upright. "You don't get to stand there looking guilty and expect it to undo what you did."
The bond surged at my anger. Heat rippled through my veins. The mark flared, bright enough to light the cave walls.
Kael sucked in a sharp breath.
"There," he whispered. "That's it. That's what I was afraid of."
I stared at him. "You were afraid of me?"
"Yes."
The word landed heavy.
"I wasn't supposed to reject you like that," he continued quickly, like if he slowed down he'd lose the nerve. "The ritual was supposed to be controlled. Private. The elders rushed it."
"So this is their fault now?" I snapped.
"No," he said. "This is mine."
I folded my arms over my chest, more to contain the burning than to shield myself from him. "Then explain," I said. "Explain why the bond didn't break. Explain why the moon answered me. Explain why I'm still alive when every law says I shouldn't be."
Kael's jaw clenched. He looked past me, into the dark of the cave, like he was afraid of being overheard.
"There are safeguards," he said slowly. "Failsafes buried in pack law. Old ones. Ones we don't use anymore."
"And?"
"And when something threatens the Alpha line," he said, "those safeguards activate."
I stared at him. "I'm not a threat."
His eyes snapped back to mine.
"That's the lie," he said quietly.
Silence stretched between us, thick and charged.
My wolf pressed close to the surface, hackles raised. "He's telling a truth," she murmured. "Just not the whole one."
"What kind of threat?" I asked.
Kael hesitated.
That hesitation felt louder than any confession.
"The kind that unravels control," he finally said. "The kind that makes elders panic. The kind that doesn't fit inside prophecy."
My stomach twisted. "You're talking about power."
"I'm talking about history," he corrected.
Before I could respond, pain slammed into my chest again, brutal and sudden. I gasped, dropping to one knee as the mark burned hotter than it ever had.
Kael swore and moved forward instinctively.
"Don't touch me," I snapped.
He stopped short, hands hovering uselessly at his sides.
The ground beneath us vibrated. Low and Violent. The cave walls pulsed faintly, like they were breathing.
"This is why you can't stay near the pack," Kael said urgently. "Every time it reacts, the elders feel it. They'll call a binding ritual."
My head snapped up. "A severing?"
"No," he said. "A containment."
Cold flooded my veins. "Like a cage."
"Like a coffin," he corrected.
Something in his tone told me he wasn't exaggerating.
"You knew this," I said. "You knew what would happen if they sensed me."
"Yes."
"And you still rejected me," I whispered.
His shoulders slumped. "Because if the bond had sealed properly, it would've triggered the curse at full force."
"The curse you carry," I said.
Kael flinched. "Yes."
My wolf snarled. "Liar."
The word rang sharp in my head.
I pushed myself upright again, ignoring the ache in my bones. "You said the curse would kill the pack," I said slowly. "That it ran in the Alpha bloodline."
"It does," Kael replied. "I've felt it my entire life."
"Then why," I asked, "does it react to me?"
His eyes widened.
Just a fraction.
Enough.
"You don't know," I said. It wasn't a question.
Kael's silence confirmed it.
A laugh bubbled up in my chest, thin and incredulous. "So you humiliated me. Exiled me. Broke the laws of mercy. All on a theory."
"I was trying to buy time," he said.
"For who?" I demanded. "You?"
"For everyone," he snapped, frustration finally breaking through. "You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to look at you like that and say those words?"
"I don't care what you wanted," I shot back. "I care what you did."
The cave trembled again, stronger this time. Dust rained from the ceiling.
Kael went still. "They've started."
"Started what?"
"The ritual," he said. "The elders felt the backlash from the rejection. They'll try to force the bond to break completely."
My heart dropped. "You said it couldn't."
"It shouldn't," he corrected. "But blood changes rules."
"Whose blood?" I asked.
He looked at me like I already knew the answer.
Mine.
"No," I whispered. "I won't go back."
"I know," he said softly. "That's why I came."
"To drag me back in chains?" I challenged.
"To stop them from killing you," he replied.
That stole the anger right out of me.
"How?" I asked.
Kael took a steadying breath. "There's a counter-ritual. Older than the pack itself. It was designed to reset a corrupted bond."
My pulse thundered. "Reset how?"
He hesitated again.
That was becoming a pattern.
"By spilling blood in the circle," he said quietly. "Not rejection blood. Not severing blood."
"Then whose?"
His eyes met mine, dark and heavy.
"Yours," he said. "And mine."
The cave went silent.
"You want to bleed me," I said flatly.
"I want to stop them from cutting your throat," he replied.
I stared at him, chest heaving, mind racing.
"You swore to protect your mate," I said. "Then you rejected me. Now you want my blood."
"I swore to protect the pack," he said. "Even from truths they can't survive."
"That includes me," I realized.
He didn't deny it.
Outside the cave, the wind shifted. I felt it like a warning. Like something ancient had lifted its head and noticed us.
"The ritual circle," Kael said urgently. "They'll reopen it before dawn. If we don't act first, they'll bind you permanently."
My wolf growled low in my chest. "If he takes you back there," she warned, "you won't leave whole."
"I'm not your weapon," I told Kael.
"I know," he said. "You're the key."
That word echoed wrong.
Key to what?
I took a step back, closer to the cave wall. "If I agree to this," I said slowly, "you tell me everything. No half-truths. No omissions."
Kael nodded. "After."
"No," I said sharply. "Before."
The bond flared between us, hot and tight, like it was listening.
Kael opened his mouth to argue.
Then the ground split.
A jagged crack tore through the cave floor, glowing faintly silver. Power surged up through my legs, knocking the breath from my lungs. I screamed as something inside me answered it eagerly.
Kael swore violently.
"They're here," he said.
"Who?" I gasped.
"The elders," he replied. "And the healer."
A shadow fell across the mouth of the cave.
Then another.
And another.
Eamon Crowspire's calm voice drifted in, gentle and wrong.
"Elowen Ashfall," he called softly. "Come back to the circle."
The mark on my chest ignited.
And deep in my bones, a memory stirred that did not belong to this lifetime.
Stone beneath my knees.
A blade in someone else's hand.
And blood soaking sacred ground.
Mine.