Chapter Three – Bound in Shadows
1434 Words
Sleep came in fragments, restless and fevered. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same vision: a silver thread fraying, snapping, and dissolving into black mist. I’d jolt awake drenched in sweat, my chest aching as if the curse were chewing through me from the inside out.
By dawn, the infirmary smelled of damp herbs and ash. Tessa had fallen asleep in the chair beside my bed, her head tilted awkwardly, strands of hair sticking to her cheek. I envied her calm.
The healer returned with potions and stern words about rest, but no amount of elixirs could erase the truth: rejection was killing me, slowly and cruelly. The bond hadn’t broken clean. My heart still recognized Elias, still ached for him, but every beat tore me apart.
When the infirmary door creaked open, I expected Elias. Instead, Kael Draven stepped inside like he owned the place.
His presence filled the room instantly—broad shoulders, sharp jaw, storm-grey eyes that scanned me with unsettling precision. His dark hair looked damp, like he’d been out before sunrise, running or hunting.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered, my voice raw.
He shut the door behind him, leaning against it casually. “Neither should you. By rights, you should be dead.”
A shiver skated down my spine. His words weren’t cruel, just matter-of-fact, as if he’d been turning them over all night.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Answers.” He stepped closer, his movements deliberate. “That curse—it recognized me. When I touched you, it hesitated. Why?”
I swallowed, tugging the blanket tighter around me. “Maybe because you’re not supposed to be here. Maybe it didn’t know what to do with you.”
“Or maybe,” he said, lowering his voice, “it knows I’m the one who can break it.”
My laugh came out harsh, hollow. “You think you can rewrite fate? You think you can outmaneuver the Moon Goddess herself?”
His mouth curved in the barest hint of a smile. “Why not? She’s not the only one who plays games with wolves.”
The way he said it sent a strange chill through me, part fear, part curiosity. Who was this man who spoke about the Goddess like she was an adversary instead of a deity?
Before I could press him, the door slammed open again. Elias stormed in, golden eyes blazing, fury rolling off him in waves.
“What the hell are you doing here, Draven?”
Kael didn’t flinch. He turned slowly, deliberately, as if savoring Elias’s anger. “Checking on her. Since you seem to have done such a spectacular job of nearly killing her.”
Elias’s growl rattled the glass lanterns on the wall. “You don’t get to come in here and pretend you care. You don’t even know her.”
Kael’s gaze flicked to me, then back to him. “Maybe I don’t. But I know enough to see you’ve already failed her.”
The tension snapped like a whip. Power surged, Elias’s golden aura colliding with Kael’s shadowed one. The air grew heavy, charged, sparks crackling in the silence.
“Stop,” I croaked, clutching the sheets. “Both of you.”
But neither listened.
Elias’s fists clenched, his voice cutting sharp. “She’s mine. Fate chose her for me.”
“Fate,” Kael echoed, voice low, mocking. He stepped closer to Elias, their auras grinding against each other like flint and steel. “And yet you rejected her. Some mate you turned out to be.”
Elias lunged before I could blink. The two Alphas collided, crashing into the healer’s cabinet. Bottles shattered, herbs scattering across the floor.
“Stop!” I screamed, the sound ripping from my throat.
For a moment, it worked. Both froze, their chests heaving, eyes locked like predators circling the same prey.
“This is what the curse wants,” I said, my voice shaking. “It wants blood. It wants ruin. And you’re both playing right into it.”
Elias’s gaze softened, but only slightly. “Liora…”
Kael turned back to me, expression unreadable. “Maybe. Or maybe it wants something else. Maybe it’s testing which of us deserves you.”
My heart stuttered. “Deserves me? I’m not a prize to be won.”
“No,” Kael said softly. “You’re a weapon. And right now, you’re pointed at the wrong target.”
The words unsettled me more than Elias’s anger ever had.
The healer burst in then, furious. “Out! Both of you!” She shoved them toward the door with surprising strength for someone so small. “If you want to fight, take it outside. I won’t have my infirmary destroyed by egos.”
They obeyed reluctantly, but not before Kael’s eyes lingered on mine, promising something neither of us could name.
When the room finally quieted, I slumped back, shaking. Tessa stirred, groggy, whispering, “What happened?”
“Nothing good,” I murmured.
Classes resumed the next day. I shouldn’t have gone, but staying in bed made me feel like a ghost waiting for death. At least in the lecture hall, surrounded by students scribbling notes on shifter history, I could pretend for an hour that I was normal.
But whispers followed me everywhere. The cursed girl. The rejected mate. The one Kael Draven carried out of the Hall.
Tessa glared at anyone who dared say it too loud, but the words stuck like burrs in my skin.
During combat training, my body betrayed me. My vision blurred, my balance tilted, and I stumbled mid-spar, nearly collapsing. My opponent froze, unsure whether to strike. The instructor barked at me to stand, but my knees gave out.
Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground.
“Careful,” Kael murmured near my ear, steadying me with ease.
Every eye in the training yard turned. Gasps rippled through the students.
“Why are you everywhere?” I whispered harshly, my pulse racing.
“Because you’re falling apart,” he said simply, his hand lingering at my waist. “And no one else seems willing to hold you together.”
Elias stood at the edge of the ring, fury etched into his features, his fists trembling. His gaze burned holes through us.
I wanted to pull away, to reject Kael’s help, but my body betrayed me again. I leaned into his strength, just enough to keep standing.
The instructor’s voice cut through the tension. “Enough. Vale, sit this out. Draven, back to your post.”
Reluctantly, Kael released me, though his eyes lingered like a touch.
Elias stalked over as soon as Kael was gone, his voice low and harsh. “Don’t trust him. He’s using you.”
“Like you did?” The words slipped out before I could stop them, sharp as a blade.
He flinched. Just barely, but I saw it.
I walked away before the ache in my chest could drown me.
That night, sleep refused me again. I wandered the academy’s courtyard, the stone slick with dew, the full moon bleeding silver across the sky. The curse gnawed at me, every step heavy, my breath shallow.
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
Kael emerged from the shadows like he’d been waiting for me. His wolf flickered behind his eyes, restless.
“I’m always alone,” I said bitterly.
“Not anymore.”
I turned on him, anger sparking. “Why? Why are you doing this? You’re not my mate. You’re not anything to me.”
“Not yet.”
His certainty rattled me. “You can’t just decide that.”
He stepped closer, slow and deliberate. “I don’t care what the Goddess says. I don’t care about curses or traditions. I care that when I touched you, you lived. And I’m not walking away from that.”
My heart thundered. “You’ll die.”
“Maybe,” he said, eyes gleaming like storm clouds. “But maybe I’ll rewrite the story.”
The air between us crackled, charged with something dangerous, something I wasn’t ready to name. His hand lifted, hovering near mine, not touching, but close enough that my skin burned with awareness.
“Choose,” he whispered. “Keep dying for him or take a chance on me.”
The world seemed to hold its breath.
And for the first time, I wondered if the curse wasn’t meant to kill me at all. Maybe it was meant to force me into the arms of the wrong wolf.
- Writer
