The blood moon drew closer.
Each night it crept higher in the sky, its hue intensifying to a deeper crimson as though it bled for what was to come.
Rhea should have felt nervous. But it was something else entirely that curled in her gut: hunger, fierce and unrelenting.
Yet even desire couldn't silence the questions plaguing her.
What was the bond truly? Why had the Moon Queen chosen her? Why did Kael hesitate when everything in him screamed to claim her?
Answers wouldn't come from Kael. Not yet. So she did what the villagers whispered never to do she returned to the ruins of Aether Hollow.
The land of the old gods.
Where the forest grew too quiet. Where no animals walked. Where the earth itself trembled.
She found the old seer there Mother Idris.
Blind, half-mad, and reeking of herbs and wolf blood. But her insight was legend.
"You carry the scent of alpha," the old woman rasped as Rhea approached. "But not his mark."
"Not yet," Rhea replied.
Mother Idris cackled. "Then you still have a choice."
"I don't think I do."
"You always have a choice, girl. Even the Moon Queen knows that. But you're tangled in more than bond threads. You've stepped into prophecy."
Rhea's spine stiffened. "What prophecy?"
The old woman limped closer, the bells on her staff jingling like death's own laughter. "Long ago, the Moon Queen was betrayed by her bonded. A mortal. She cursed herself to sleep until a daughter born under a shattered moon would reawaken her wrath."
The seer touched Rhea's chest.
"And you… are that daughter."
Rhea's blood ran cold.
"No."
"Yes," the crone hissed. "The bond isn't just lust, child. It's power. The Moon Queen is using you to return and she'll use the bite to control him."
Rhea shook her head, stepping back. "Kael wouldn't—"
"He won't have a choice either."
Suddenly, a branch cracked in the woods.
Rhea spun around knife drawn.
From the shadows emerged a tall man, bare-chested, silver-eyed like Kael… but younger. Leaner. Crueler.
"Brother," he said with a grin. "Didn't think I'd find you first."
"Who are you?" Rhea asked.
The seer's mouth twisted. "That… is Theron, Kael's younger brother. The one who was exiled."
"Only because I wouldn't bow to a broken crown," Theron replied.
He moved like liquid shadow, his gaze trailing over Rhea in a way that made her skin prickle.
"You're prettier than I expected," he murmured. "But do you even know what you're walking into?"
She stood her ground. "I know Kael is my bondmate."
He laughed,sharp and bitter. "You think that means you're safe? You think he's the only one the Moon Queen touched?"
His eyes began to glow, and Rhea felt it a pulse, not as deep as Kael's, but close. Similar.
"You have a bond too," she said slowly.
Theron stepped closer. "Not anymore. I broke it. I killed her before she could claim me."
Rhea swallowed hard.
"And now?" she whispered.
"Now?" He smirked. "Now I make sure my brother doesn't bring that witch back from the dead. Even if it means tearing you apart first."
He lunged.
But a howl shattered the air low, furious, and too close.
Kael.
He exploded into the clearing in full wolf form, silver and massive, fur bristling, teeth bared. He barreled into Theron, sending him flying.
Rhea watched, breathless, as the two brothers fought fang to fang, claw to claw.
Theron shifted mid-air, matching Kael's form, and the sound of bone against bone, snarling, ripping, echoed through the forest like thunder.
It wasn't just a fight.
It was war.
When Kael finally stood over Theron's trembling form, teeth at his brother's throat, Rhea stepped forward.
"Don't kill him," she said, voice shaking. "Not yet."
Kael shifted slowly, blood dripping down his chest.
"He'll come back," Kael rasped.
"I know."
Her eyes never left Theron. "So we need to know what he knows first."
Kael nodded once.
Then he collapsed, the bond flaring between them hot, pulsing.
Rhea caught him before he hit the ground.
And as she held his burning body, something inside her whispered:
The bond isn't just desire. It's destiny.
And destiny always demands a price.