When Instinct Wins
1344 Words
KANE'S POV
I've fought monsters, armies, and Alpha challengers, sometimes all at once .
But nothing had prepared me for the way my body betrayed me.
The woman before me trembled not in fear, but in recognition. Her silver-gray eyes reflected the moon like mirrors, and when I inhaled, my knees nearly buckled.
I heard my wolf's bold declaration.
Mate.
That's impossible.
Yet my wolf roared, clawing for control. Unable to control myself, I crossed the space between us in a blink, gripping her wrist before she could flee.
“Tell me your name,” I demanded, my voice rough with need.
She shook her head. "If I do... I won't be able to leave"
Smart. Too smart.
The bond burned hotter, pulling us together with brutal inevitability. I tried my best to fight it, but the moon showed no mercy.
I felt the pull more than ever before.
My lips met hers like a collision.
The forest watched in silence as fate sealed itself into flesh and blood.
When the mark flared hot against my neck, I swore under his breath.
This wasn’t a choice.
This was compulsion at best.
****
I reached for her as the sun rays shown brightly almost blinding but found nothing but the warmth from where she had lain.
My wolf awoke started as we searched for her but found nothing for miles.
My wolf roared in pure fury.
"I will find her"
My mind wandered to what Luna had said the day before
The echo of my wolf’s roar still rattled my bones when Luna’s words surfaced, unbidden and unwelcome.
"Beware of the silver"
she had warned, her almost blind eyes clouded but unseeing nothing.
"Your ruin will wear moonlight in her hair and frost in her mane. She will not be your end… but she will unmake everything you believe you are."
At the time, I had laughed it off. Luna had raised me since I was a pup barely strong enough to stand after my parents had died in the great war between humans and werewolves. Now her prophecies are as common as her herbs and teas. Some came true. Some twisted themselves into nonsense. I had learned to listen—but never to obey.
Now, with the forest torn apart by my search and the ache of absence gnawing at my chest, her warning gripped tightly around my ribs.
Her Silver hair.
Her Silver mane.
I slammed my fist into the trunk of an oak, sending the bark splintering beneath my strength. My wolf snarled, pacing, frantic, every instinct screaming that our mate was out there terrified, and running from something far worse than us.
“She’s not my ruin,” I growled aloud. “She’s my bond.”
I declared.
My wolf agreed, pushing against me, urging pursuit. The bond tugged me eastward, then it vanished like smoke. Whoever she was, she knew how to hide. Or someone had taught her to.
That alone chilled me more than Luna’s prophecy ever had.
The sun climbed higher, burning away the last traces of her scent. By noon, all that remained was the memory of her lips, her scent had disappeared and the mark still blazing against my skin,a mark I hadn’t chosen, but one I would defend with my life.
Luna had always said prophecies were like reflections in water.
That fact was true. She’d told me once before when I was younger, with her fingers brushing my cheek with unsettling gentleness.
" What you think you see is shaped by where you stand."
I hadn’t understood then.
I was starting to now.
Silver didn’t always mean enemy.
And ruin didn’t always mean destruction.
Sometimes, it meant transition.
I lifted my head and let out a howl that split the sky.
One promise, one vow.
“I will find you,” I said, to the wind, to the moon, to fate itself.
“And when I do… no prophecy, no man, no twisted vision will take you from me.”
Somewhere far beyond the forest, I felt it—the faintest answering pull.
She was alive.
And the story Luna thought she’d seen?
It wasn’t finished yet.
*****
The cottage smelled of sage and smoke—too calm, too familiar for the storm ripping through me.
I didn’t bother knocking.
The door slammed open under my hand, rattling the charms hanging from the beams. Luna didn’t flinch. She sat exactly where she always did, bones wrapped in wool, white hair braided down her back, eyes lifted toward me as if she’d been waiting all along.
“You found nothing,” she said quietly.
My jaw clenched. “You always knew.”
The words came out low, dangerous.
Her fingers stilled over the plate in her lap.
“You knew,” I repeated, stepping closer.
“You knew about her. About the bond. About everything.
The mark on my neck burned in answer, as if daring her to deny it.
Luna let out a tired sigh
“I knew there was a chance.”
“A chance?” My wolf surged, claws scraping the inside of my skull.
“You told me she’d be my ruin.”
“I told you what you were ready to hear.” she corrected.
That stopped me cold.
I loomed over her with my fists clenched at my sides.
“You’re saying the prophecy was wrong?”
“No,” she said softly. “I’m saying You misunderstood it. And so did I… at first.”
The air thickened. Even the fire stilled, embers dimming as if listening.
Luna reached out, her hand gripping my wrist tightly. Her grip was weak—but unshakable.
“The prophecy never said the silver-haired one would destroy you,” she said. “It said she would unmake you.”
I yanked my hand back. “That’s the same thing.”
“For warriors,” Luna replied, voice sharpening, “yes. For leaders… it is rebirth.”
My chest heaved. Images flashed—silver eyes, trembling lips, the way the bond hadn’t felt like conquest, but collision.
“She ran,” I said hoarsely. “She was terrified.”
“She was protecting you.”
I laughed, harsh and broken. “From what exactly? Her own ignorance?! "
Luna’s face tightened. For the first time since I’d known her, fear crept into her expression.
“From the truth,” she whispered. “From what she is. And from what you will become once the packs learn what blood runs through her veins.”
The fire hissed.
I stepped back slowly. “You’re saying she isn’t my enemy.”
“No,” Luna said. “She is the one the old laws were written to erase.”
Silence crashed down between us.
“You made me believe she’d ruin me,” I said, betrayal slicing deeper than any blade.
Luna bowed her head in remorse. “Because if I’d told you she would change everything—your rule, your alliances, the balance of power—you would have gone to her without hesitation.”
She looked up then, eyes milky but piercing.
“And they would have killed her before the bond had time to root.”
My wolf snarled, not at her—but at the truth.
I said slowly. “You chose fear over trust.”
“I chose time!" Luna replied. “Time for you to bond. Time for her to run. Time for the prophecy to finish unfolding.”
I turned toward the door, fury and resolve burning red hot.
“She doesn’t get time,” I said. “Not alone.”
Luna’s voice followed me, soft but iron-bound.
“When you find her,” she said, “you must choose. Not as an Alpha. Not as my son.”
I paused.
“Choose as the man willing to let the world burn its old lies.”
The bond flared—sharp, urgent.
She was in danger.
And suddenly, ruin didn’t sound like loss at all.
It sounded like revolution.
- Writer
