Alaric Vaelthorn couldn't sleep. Again.
The wind howled through the peaks like voices from the dead, and still, he paced. His claws dug into the marble floor of the ancestral chamber with each step, each turn. Something throbbed deep inside him, a phantom pain that refused to be silenced.
Her.
The scent of Seraphine Duskbane clung to his skin even after he'd tried to wash her off him by cleansing himself in Hollowsvale Mountain Fountain.
The bond pulsed through his veins like wildfire, violent, sharp, sacred, and he hated it.
He had tried. Moon above, he had tried to bury it. To reject it. To resist her.
But every time she breathed, his chest tightened. Every time she bled, he felt it in his soul.
And that enraged him even further.
Because she was human, she was tainted. A hunter of his kind. And worst of all, she'd killed his only sibling.
Yet the bond had chosen her.
And that was something he could no longer tolerate.
He strode into the east wing of Vaelspire Keep, the flame of the torches flickering as he passed. Past the stone wolves and sigils of his bloodline. Past the chamber where his sister once sang to the moon as a girl.
And into the darkness of the moon chamber.
She was waiting for him.
Nyssa Greymoor, once his closest friend, now a thorn he couldn't get rid of.
"You look haunted, wolf prince." she said, lounging barefoot on the rune-inscribed floor, a silver knife balanced on her knee.
"I need your help." He gritted out.
Her golden eyes glinted. "With the girl?"
"With the bond. I want it severed."
A long pause.
Nyssa rose slowly, gracefully, like liquid shadow. "You want to cut the bond?"
"I want it gone."
She tilted her head. "You do realize… severing it could kill you."
"I'm aware."
Nyssa studied him. "And if it doesn't kill you, it will unmake you. No heir of the Vaelthorn line has ever tried this. Do you know what that kind of spiritual violence does to the wolf inside?"
He clenched his jaw. "I'll take that risk."
"Because you believe it's a mistake?"
He said nothing.
"Or because you can't forgive her?" Nyssa probed.
"It is an abomination. I want it gone."
That was his answer.
Nyssa stepped closer, her voice low and dangerous. "You know what I think? You don't want the bond gone because she's your enemy. You want it gone because she's becoming something more."
"I don't—"
"You're afraid, Alaric. Not of the bond. But of what it will force you to become to protect her. To love her."
Alaric met her gaze. "Then help me before I lose everything."
It was not a plea nor was it a request.
It was a challenge.
Nyssa sighed and drew a dagger from the folds of her robe. It wasn't for killing.
It was for the ritual.
"Lie down."
He obeyed, his wolf hammering his ribcage demanding its release and promising retribution to whomever would tear it apart from its mate. Alaric ignored its protests and forced it down.
"This will hurt," she whispered.
He closed his eyes, "Good."
The Hunter's Guild, Ironhold Fortress
Seraphine sat alone in the small obsidian chamber, hands resting on her lap. She'd been stripped of her armor and weapons and she struggled to remain calm under the anxious silence.
The Guild Council had summoned her. Again.
She remebered what Commander Vex Marron had told her, "The alpha will come for you."
The ultimatum he and the council members had given her, "Go with the Alpha, seduce him, earn his trust, learn his secret and kill him."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you die in the Circle. As one of the beasts you've killed your entire life and your history with the hunters guild will be completely wiped out of the record books. You will have nothing to your name."
Now she could feel the beast now, humming beneath her skin. She didn't know what it meant but she knew, she was changing.
The door creaked open.
Four figures entered: Commander Vex, Grandmistress Leona, Councilman Derrick and High Enforcer Tallen.
The full Council.
Seraphine stood.
They did not greet her.
"We have not received any word of the wolf prince," Vex said, "Have you met with him since the hybrid attack?"
"No." Seraphine replied coldly.
Councilman Derrick spoke up, "It's been three half moons since their last encounter, I reckon the wolf prince is a bit shy."
No one laughed at the joke.
A guard came in with a tray bearing four cups of steaming hot tea, none was offered to Seraphine.
"From what we've gathered about their kind, a wolf and human bond is deemed an abomination and destroyed before both parties are fully mated." Leona offered with a bored sigh.
"Which mean we have to act fast before decide to kill Seraphine here and be done with it." Tallen finished, sipping his tea rather elegantly.
"Then I'm afraid there's no time to waste then, Commander Seraphine Duskbane." Vex said.
Seraphine stood at attention, "What are my commands, Commander Vex Marron?"
"You are charged with find the wolf prince, seduce him, find out the secret to wiping out the entire pureblood clan and killing the wolf prince before the third blood moon."
"What if I just kill him? I don't have to... seduce him." Seraphine forced the disgusting words from her lips.
Vex's expression was grim. "You are bonded to Alaric Vaelthorn. And he is bonded to you. That makes you the only person alive who can get close to him. Closer than any of us."
Leona nodded. "You will first seduce him. Lure him into your trust. And then you strike. Kill the heir, destroy the bloodline."
"If I refuse?"
Tallen stepped forward, dagger drawn. "Then we kill you. Right here. Right now."
Seraphine laughed bitterly. "So it's loyalty or death."
"It is war."
Her fingers curled into fists. Her heart beat too fast. Something primal stirred in her chest.
Leona handed her a blade. Silver. Laced with obsidian powder.
"You leave by midnight. Return with his head, or don't return at all."
,,,
Back at Vaelspire Keep, Nyssa chanted in a dead language. Her knife traced glowing sigils across Alaric's chest, the bond-pulse beneath his skin writhing like a caged thing.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes."
She pressed the blade to his heart.
The pain was instantaneous.
His body arched. His breath vanished. The bond screamed in his veins, a scream that wasn't just his.
He saw flashes.
Seraphine in chains.
Her hands dripping blood.
A silver dagger pressed to her chest.
"Wait—" he gasped. "What is this—?"
"You're seeing her," Nyssa hissed, eyes wide. "Through the bond."
Alaric convulsed.
His heart faltered.
And then he lay still. Gasping.
The bond... had dimmed.
But not vanished.
And now, something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Nyssa pressed her hand to his chest.
"It fought back."
"What does that mean?" he rasped.
"It means the bond is deeper than the others. Older. Not created by fate."
"Then what?"
"Crafted," she whispered. "Forged in blood. Someone tied you two together... on purpose."
Alaric sat upright.
His eyes burned gold.
And then he felt it.
A surge of pain from the bond. Distant. But real.
She was in danger.
His breath hitched.
"They're going to kill her."
Nyssa touched his arm. "If you go after her now, the Elders will destroy you."
Alaric stood.
"Let them try."
,,,At the Edge of Ironhold
Seraphine stared at the silver dagger in her hand.
The forest was quiet. The wind still.
She knew where Alaric would be. No, not him but his wolf. She knew where the wolf would be and he would feel her approach before she ever stepped foot inside Vaelspire.
The Guild's threat pulsed in her ear: Return with his head, or die.
She gritted her teeth.
She would end this.
Tonight.