Chapter 5: Bound in Blood
1611 Words
Smoke curled into the night sky, thick and black like a warning from the gods.
Liana ran.
Not away—but toward the fire, her heart thudding like war drums in her chest. Every breath she took was laced with ash and adrenaline. Screams echoed through the trees, mingled with growls and the snapping of jaws.
The village was under siege.
She could feel Riy's presence in the chaos—his rage, his pain, his protectiveness threading through their bond like a livewire. But there was something else too. A darkness. A pull.
She stumbled into the main square and froze.
Children—pack pups—were huddled behind a burning cart, trembling. Three rogues circled them, their snarls low and guttural, eyes glowing with madness.
Liana didn’t think.
She launched herself forward.
Her dagger sank into the first rogue’s side before he could turn. The second leapt for her, but she rolled beneath him, grabbed a burning branch from the ground, and drove it into his chest.
The third growled and lunged.
This time, she met him head-on.
Her wolf screamed through her veins. Light exploded from her chest—silver and wild. The rogue howled as it hit him, his body flung into the nearest wall with a sickening crunch.
The pups stared at her like she was some kind of goddess.
“I’m Liana,” she said, breathless. “Stick close. I’ll get you out.”
---
Elsewhere, Riy tore through the enemy ranks like a storm.
Blood matted his fur. His claws were red. But he felt nothing. No exhaustion. No fear.
Only rage.
Until he saw him.
The rogue Alpha.
Tall. Broad. A twisted version of what Riy could have been had he surrendered to his darker instincts. The crescent-shaped burn scar on the side of the rogue's face matched the symbol on Liana’s door.
“You finally show your face,” Riy snarled, shifting back to human form as he stalked forward.
The rogue smirked. “I wanted to see the pretty little Alpha who bonded with the Wild Blood. Tell me, Riy—did she scream when you marked her?”
Riy’s eyes glowed gold. “You’ll regret that.”
“I already do,” the rogue said. “Because you were supposed to die as a child. Like your father.”
Riy blinked. “What did you say?”
But the rogue was already shifting, lunging, fangs aimed at Riy’s throat.
---
Liana dragged the children to safety, her body aching, her magic flickering like a faulty candle. She collapsed behind the healer’s hut, blood on her hands, trembling.
Kael appeared beside her like smoke. “You unleashed it, didn’t you?”
She nodded. “I didn’t mean to. It just… happened.”
“It will keep happening. That kind of power doesn’t stay quiet. And you still don’t know the price.”
“What price?”
Kael looked at her with eyes far too old. “Power like yours always comes from blood. Yours—or someone else’s.”
She swallowed hard. “Then teach me how to control it.”
Kael tilted his head. “What if it controls you first?”
---
Back at the battlefield, Riy stood over the rogue Alpha’s broken form. His chest heaved, blood dripping from his jaw.
But something felt… wrong.
The rogue grinned through broken teeth. “She’s changing. You know that, right? Every time she uses that magic, a part of you dies. Because the Wild Blood was never meant to serve an Alpha. It was meant to replace one.”
Riy’s breath caught.
“No,” he said. “She’s my mate.”
“She’s your end.”
---
Liana felt it. The crack in their bond. The hesitation.
She gripped the edge of the healer’s table, tears burning her eyes.
“I won’t lose him,” she whispered.
And then the mark on her wrist blazed to life.
Silver light burst from her skin.
And somewhere, in the depths of the packlands, an ancient power woke—and it knew her name.
The air trembled.
The silver light streaming from Liana's skin swirled into the sky, forming ancient symbols Riy had only seen once before—in a forbidden book buried deep within the Alpha archives.
He felt it from across the battlefield.
Her power was calling to him.
No... not calling.
Commanding.
Riy stumbled backward, hand clutched to his chest. His wolf howled inside him—not in pain, but in submission. Something primal had shifted. Liana wasn’t just his mate anymore.
She was something more.
---
Liana collapsed inside the healer's hut, breathing hard. Kael knelt beside her, his hands glowing with golden fire.
"You called the old gods," he said, eyes wide. "You didn’t just wake them. You summoned them."
“I didn’t mean to,” she whispered, trembling. “It was the mark. It burned. It felt like it was choosing me.”
Kael looked at her, solemn. “It did. The Wild Blood has chosen its queen.”
Her breath caught.
“What does that mean for Riy?”
Kael hesitated. “He’s still Alpha—but now, your magic challenges the very laws that hold this pack together. His bond with you... it may break. Or worse—bend him to you.”
Liana’s heart twisted. That wasn’t what she wanted.
“I never wanted control. I just want him.”
Kael leaned closer. “Then you’ll have to fight the Wild Blood itself. Because it doesn’t share.”
---
Outside, Riy walked through smoke and ash, wolves kneeling as he passed. But his mind was with her.
He entered the healer's hut quietly, halting at the sight of Kael’s hand still on Liana’s back.
“Get. Away. From her.”
Kael met his gaze, unfazed. “She nearly died protecting your pack. Maybe try gratitude.”
Riy bared his teeth. “You think I don’t know what this is? You’re feeding her power, pushing her to outgrow me.”
“She’s not yours to cage, Alpha.”
Riy stepped forward, fists clenched. “And you’re not part of this pack.”
Liana stood between them, voice trembling but firm. “Enough! This is my choice.”
They both stilled.
She looked at Riy, pain flickering in her eyes. “I need to understand what’s happening to me. I need to learn. Not to become your equal—but to survive beside you.”
Riy looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded, jaw tight.
“We learn together. Or not at all.”
---
Later that night, under the blood-red moon, the pack gathered.
Ashes scattered the air. Bodies were buried. And new names were written in the Book of the Fallen.
Riy held Liana’s hand, but his eyes watched the sky.
He felt the future barreling toward them like a storm.
And he knew, deep down, that claiming her wasn’t the end.
It was only the beginning.
Because somewhere beyond the mountains, a whisper traveled through the wind.
The Luna is rising.
And soon… so would war.
The blood moon hovered heavy above them, casting a crimson glow over the village as though the sky itself bled for what was coming.
Riy stood on the cliff that overlooked the pack lands, his bare chest heaving, arms streaked with dirt, blood, and warpaint. Below, the wolves began to rebuild. But there was a restlessness in the air. A quiet before another storm.
And in his soul, a crack he couldn’t ignore.
“She’s changing,” he whispered to the night, to the spirits of his ancestors. “And I don’t know if I’m strong enough to hold her.”
Behind him, soft footsteps.
“I’m not yours to hold, Riy,” Liana said, her voice low but steady. “I’m yours to run beside.”
He turned, caught between shame and relief. The wind tugged at her hair, her eyes glowing faintly under the blood moon—silver threaded with violet.
“Do you feel it too?” he asked.
She nodded. “The magic. The pull. The... separation.”
He stepped closer. “Then let’s not let it break us.”
“I don’t want it to,” she murmured.
“But?”
“But the Wild Blood isn’t done with me. It wants me to step into something more. And I’m afraid when I do... I won’t be the same Luna you marked.”
Riy cupped her face gently. “Then let me love all the versions of you. Even the ones that terrify me.”
She smiled—soft, sad, beautiful.
“I don’t need you to protect me, Riy. I need you to stand with me when I become the thing they fear.”
---
Deep in the woods, far from the packlands, the rogue Alpha limped into a ruined temple.
He knelt before a pool of black water, his body broken, his breath shallow.
“She’s awakened it,” he rasped. “Just like you said.”
A woman stepped from the shadows, robed in night itself. Her eyes were silver mirrors. Her voice like falling leaves.
“Then the prophecy begins,” she said. “The Alpha’s mate will break the chain. The Luna will bleed the moon.”
She knelt beside the rogue, pressed her fingers to his forehead—and he screamed as power poured into him like molten fire.
“We’ll use her power,” the woman whispered. “And when the Alpha is broken, the Wild Queen will kneel.”
She smiled.
“And the last kingdom of wolves will fall.”
- Writer
