Her voice pierced something inside me.
As she spoke—soft, trembling, raw—I could barely breathe. The way her voice cracked when she talked about her parents… the way she said she begged them to wake up, not to leave her behind…
I remembered it, i keep remembering all the time. The reason why i was being cursed by the moonbind. How can i forget the pain i caused her.
All of it.
The night that shattered her world…
Was the same night that destroyed mine.
She doesn't know. She can't know. Not yet.
But I was there.
Not as a savior. But...
As the reason it all happened.
I hadn't meant to shift that night.
I was only fifteen… too young to hold it back when the rage swallowed me whole. Too unstable. Too… broken.
It was a full moon. The one that awakened something feral inside me—worse than a rogue's hunger. I had tried to resist the pull, to stay locked away. But the pack had pushed me, challenged me, cornered me into a fight I couldn't win.
So I snapped.
The beast inside broke loose. I ran. Deep into the woods. Blind. Blood rushing. The world a blur of scent and sound and fury. I didn't remember what I'd done until it was too late.
I heard the crash.
Smelled the smoke. The gasoline. The blood.
When I got close—still in wolf form—I saw the wreckage: a car folded like paper around a tree. A man and a woman motionless, crushed inside. And a little girl in the back seat, her face covered in blood… screaming.
I didn't go closer. I didn't dare.
I stayed hidden… watching.
Frozen.
I couldn't move. Couldn't cry. Couldn't run.
That's when I heard their voices—my father's voice first. Deep. Commanding. My Alpha.
"Kael!" he roared through the trees. "Show yourself!"
But I stayed hidden.
He and the Beta, Gamma, and Delta arrived at the crash site. The moment his eyes landed on the wreck, he stilled.
He didn't need to ask questions.
He looked at the torn marks in the road. The paw prints. The shattered trail of my destruction. He knew.
And then he saw the girl.
He knelt beside her, pressed two fingers to her throat.
"She's alive," he said. "Fainted. Probably from shock."
He lifted her gently into his arms, and something passed across his face—grief… maybe pity.
"I'll take her to the humans' hospital," he ordered. "Gamma, with me. The rest of you—find him. Bring him home. He must answer for what he's done."
I was found less than an hour later, curled up near the old ridge where my mother used to sing to me.
I didn't fight. I didn't run.
I just… went with them.
The punishment came swiftly.
They didn't kill me.
But maybe they should have.
I was cursed—by the Elders of the Moon Circle. My Alpha father agreed. He said it was the only way I could ever truly understand what I'd taken from that girl… from myself.
They stripped me of my name. My title. My home.
They forced the Moonbind curse upon me.
A soul cut from its pack. A wolf that cannot shift at will, trapped between beast and man, chained to penance.
Immortal until redemption. Mortal in guilt.
I was exiled from the pack—forced to wander, to suffer, to save the weak, heal the broken, fight for those I'd once hurt. Until the Moon decides I've atoned.
And so I lived among shadows.
Watching. Wandering. Dying slowly and yet never truly dying.
Until now.
Until her.
I never thought I'd see her again. Grown. Brave. Pure-hearted. Willing to risk her life to save someone she loves.
And still… she doesn't know.
She doesn't remember me. She doesn't know I was the reason her parents died. That I was the monster on that road.
She doesn't know I've followed her steps, protected her path, led her to water, brought her food—not because I'm kind.
But because I owe her.
Because her pain is stitched into my curse.
Because somehow, she is the only thread that connects me to redemption.
I lay my head near her boots again, listening to the soft sound of her breath as she sleeps under the stars.
What are you, really? she asked earlier.
I wanted to answer her.
But how do I tell her the truth?
That the very creature she's learning to trust... is the same monster that broke her heart before she ever learned how to love?
I closed my eyes.
Maybe tomorrow I'll tell her.
Maybe tomorrow… she'll hate me.
But tonight, I'll guard her sleep.
Because that's the only thing I know how to do anymore.