ARIYA'S POV
He let go of me as if my skin had burned him. The blood-red Moonlight vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving the usual silver glow. But the world did not feel the same. Nothing felt the same.
My shoulder still stung. The mark of exile. But that was a small thing now, lost under the huge, terrifying truth of the bond. And my eyes… I touched my face. What had that been?
Kael stood, stepping back. The war on his face was gone, replaced by a cold, hard mask. It was the face I knew. The executioner's face.
"You saw nothing," he said, his voice like gravel. "The Moon played a trick. Your eyes are just your eyes."
He was lying. We both knew it.
"The bond…" I started, my voice a whisper.
"Does not exist." He cut me off, sharp and final. "You are a wolfless girl marked for exile. I am the Alpha's Hound. That is all."
The title was a slap. The Alpha's Hound. The pack's bogeyman. The one sent to chase down traitors. To kill. Rumors said he'd had mates before, chosen by the Moon. Rumors said they all died young. Some said the Goddess took them back. Others whispered that the Hound himself broke the bond, for a creature of darkness could not bear a light mate.
He was hiding it. Hiding me. Not to protect me. To protect himself. Or his duty.
Without another word, he turned and melted into the trees, a shadow among shadows. I was alone again, but the hollow emptiness was gone. It had been filled with a buzzing, painful awareness. A thread pulled taut, leading into the dark woods where he had gone. I could feel him, a dark, brooding presence just out of sight. He was not leaving. He was watching.
When dawn came, stiff and cold, I expected the guards. I expected death.
Instead, Luna Mother Selene herself came to the forest's edge, her white robes spotless, a gentle smile on her lips. Two guards followed, their eyes wary.
"Poor child," she said, her voice dripping with false honey. "The night has shown us our… haste. The Moon's will is mysterious. You will return to the pack's outskirts. You will serve where you can."
It was not kindness. It was a sentence to a slower, more public humiliation. But it was not death. Not yet. I saw Kael then, standing further back, his arms crossed, his expression blank. He had done this. He had used his standing, as the Alpha's most feared tool, to keep me close. Not to protect, but to possess. To control the secret.
I was given a cot in the laundry hut, behind the main pack houses. I hauled water, scrubbed clothes until my hands were raw. The pack members threw their dirty linens at my feet, their eyes full of disgust and a new, curious fear. The story of the red Moon had spread. Whispers followed me: Cursed. Omen. Corruption.
At night, I dreamed.
Not of wolves, but of the Moon.
A voice, smooth and ancient as stone, whispered from its glowing surface. "Daughter of ash and ember… they sleep in your bones… wake them."
I would jolt awake, my heart pounding, the silver glow of the real Moon through my small window feeling like an eye watching me.
And always, I could feel him. Kael. A constant, dark pressure at the edge of my mind. He never spoke to me. But I would see him, watching from a rooftop, from the tree line, as I worked. His gaze was a physical weight. The bond between us was a live thing, straining against his iron control. Sometimes, in the mess hall when I was allowed scraps, I'd feel a wave of rage so hot it stole my breath. I'd look up and see him staring at a warrior who had shoved me. The warrior would pale and step away, not knowing why.
We were bound prisoners, chained to a secret.
A week after my failed ceremony, the pack was called to the central fire. Luna Mother Selene stood with Alpha Thorin, her face solemn.
"The Moon has sent signs," she announced, her voice carrying over the silent crowd. "A red glow. A failed bond. A sickness in the spirit of our pack. A corruption lingers." Her eyes swept over the people and landed, for a fleeting second, on me in the very back. "We must be cleansed. In three nights, at the full moon, we will perform the Ritual of Purity. We will call on the Goddess to burn the corruption away and restore our strength."
A ritual. The pack murmured, uneasy but trusting. Rituals were sacred.
After the announcement, Kael appeared at my side as I carried a heavy basket of wet laundry. I flinched. He never came this close.
"You will attend the ritual," he said, his voice low, meant only for me.
"Why?" I asked, the first word I'd dared speak to him since the forest.
"Because I have been ordered to guard you." A muscle twitched in his jaw. "To ensure you are there."
"To guard me?" The words felt like a lie even as he said them.
His stormy eyes met mine, and for a second, the mask slipped. I saw the conflict, the possessiveness, the fury. "To guard the pack from you," he clarified, his tone brutal. "My orders are clear. See that the corruption is contained until the ritual."
He walked away, leaving me colder than before.
The next two days were a blur of fear. The pack's suspicion turned to open hostility. I was tripped, my food was knocked from my hands. The bond in my chest ached, a constant throb of shared anger and something else, a growing, chilling dread from him. It fed my own.
The night before the ritual, I couldn't sleep. The Moon's whispers were louder. "Blood calls to blood… do not sleep, little ember… listen."
And then, I heard real voices.
Quiet, coming from behind the sealed storage hut next to the laundry. I knew I shouldn't go. But the Moon's voice in my dream pushed me. I moved like a ghost, bare feet silent on the dirt.
I recognized Luna Mother Selene's smooth tone. And Alpha Thorin's low grumble.
"…ensure the Hound does his part. He is bound to her, it clouds his duty," Selene said.
"He follows orders. He always has," Thorin replied, sounding weary.
"This is bigger than his cursed bond, Thorin!" Selene's whisper was sharp. "The omens are clear. The red Moon. The wolfless one with the silver eyes the guards reported. She is not just corrupted. She is the source. The ritual requires a focus for the purge. A vessel to hold the pack's sickness… and be destroyed with it."
My blood turned to ice.
"The sacrifice must be willing, Selene. It is the old way."
"She will be," Selene said, and her voice was a snake's promise. "When Kael brings her to the circle, when the pack chants, she will be bound. She will have no choice. The Hound will deliver his own mate to the flame. It is… poetic. It will sever his bond and cleanse us all."
I stopped breathing. The world tilted.
Sacrifice.
I was not a participant. I was the kindling.
"And if her eyes… if what you suspect is true?" Thorin asked, fear in his voice for the first time.
"Then the ritual is even more vital," Selene hissed. "Nothing that belongs to her can be allowed to remain. Not even a memory. The Moon demands it. She dies at dawn."
The footsteps moved away. I slumped against the rough wood of the hut, my legs unable to hold me.
They knew. They knew about my eyes. They knew about the bond. And they were using it all. Kael's orders weren't to guard me. They were to deliver me.
The bond in my chest gave a violent, agonizing twist. A wave of pure, undiluted fury, not mine, but his, flooded me, followed by a surge of protective panic so fierce it made my vision white.
Somewhere in the dark, Kael had just heard every word.