# **📘 CHAPTER 11 — *“The Wolf Who Breaks the World”***
1134 Words
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The moment Aria collapsed, the world stopped breathing.
Kael held her tightly against his chest, her body limp, her pulse faint, her breath barely a whisper. Her head rested against him like a broken piece of his soul.
“Aria…”
His voice trembled—something it had never done before.
“Open your eyes. Please.”
She didn’t move.
He felt her warmth fading.
Her bond flickering.
Her light slipping through his fingers.
Rowan stepped forward, panic in his eyes.
“Kael, her heartbeat—it’s slowing.”
Kael bent over her, his shadows swirling violently around them.
“No. She’s not dying. She’s not.”
He pressed his forehead to hers.
“Aria, don’t do this to me. Stay alive. I can’t lose you.”
The Elders watched in cold silence.
Lira’s expression softened—for a moment—then hardened again.
“It has begun.”
Kael snapped his head toward her.
“Begun?” he repeated, his voice low and lethal.
Marius raised his staff again.
“The prophecy. The bond is draining her, exactly as foretold.”
Kael’s shadows roared like a living monster behind him.
“You caused this,” he growled. “You attacked her.”
Marius smirked. “Her death will save the packs.”
Kael’s heart stopped.
Then something inside him broke.
Slowly—too slowly—he laid Aria down on the floor, brushing a strand of hair from her face. His fingers lingered there, trembling.
He kissed her forehead softly, a whisper of pain.
“I’ll come back for you,” he murmured.
“Just stay alive.”
Then Kael stood.
And when he did—
**the shadows rose with him.**
They wrapped around his arms, his shoulders, his throat like black fire. The floor cracked beneath his feet. The air thickened until Rowan stumbled backward, choking.
The Elders, for the first time, looked afraid.
Kael’s voice changed.
Deeper.
Darker.
Filled with an ancient power.
“You wanted the Shadow Wolf,” he growled.
“Here I am.”
Marius lifted his staff.
“You are cursed. You cannot control—”
Kael blurred.
One second he was at Aria’s side—
the next he was in front of Marius, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall.
The entire house shook.
“You touched my mate,” Kael snarled, his breath a storm of shadows.
“You don’t get mercy.”
Marius choked, gasping for air.
“You’ll doom… us all—”
Kael squeezed tighter.
“I don’t care.”
Rowan shouted, “Kael, stop! Aria needs you—”
Kael froze.
Shadows crackled around his body, whispering, twisting like they were screaming at him. He turned his head slowly toward Aria’s unconscious form.
Her chest barely moved.
Her skin had gone pale.
And…
Her bond-thread—the invisible one he always felt like heat in his soul—was fading.
“No…”
His voice cracked like broken glass.
“She’s slipping.”
The shadows pulsed violently.
Rowan stepped closer.
“Kael, listen to me. If you lose control completely, the bond will snap. And she will die.”
Kael’s grip loosened on Marius’s throat.
He dropped the Elder on the floor like a piece of useless cloth.
Lira rushed to Marius’s side, helping him breathe.
Kael stumbled toward Aria, shadows dragging behind him like chains. He fell to his knees beside her and gathered her back into his arms.
Her head fell against his shoulder.
“I’m here,” he whispered desperately. “I’m right here.”
A soft glow flickered on her chest.
The mark.
His mark.
But it looked wrong—dim, unstable, shaking like a weakened flame.
“No, no, no…” Kael murmured, his voice rising. “Fight, Aria. Stay with me.”
Marius coughed.
“She can’t. The curse—”
Kael turned and roared.
The shadows exploded outward in a shockwave, slamming all three Elders against the wall.
“DON’T SPEAK ABOUT HER!” he thundered.
The power inside him was breaking free—untamed, ancient, unstoppable.
Rowan shielded his face, shouting, “Kael, control it! If the shadows take over—”
“They won’t!” Kael roared.
But he didn’t sound sure.
He sounded terrified.
Aria’s fingers twitched.
Kael froze.
Then her lips parted just barely.
“Kael…”
The softest whisper.
But it hit him like a bolt of lightning.
He cupped her face with shaking hands.
“I’m here. I’m here, Aria. Look at me.”
Her eyes fluttered open—just for a heartbeat.
Her voice was so faint he could barely hear it.
“Don’t… blame… yourself.”
Then her eyes rolled back, and she went still again.
Kael broke.
He pressed his forehead to hers, sobbing through clenched teeth as shadows surged violently behind him.
Marius forced himself to stand.
“There is only one way to save her,” he wheezed.
Kael lifted his head slowly.
His eyes were pure darkness.
“Speak,” he growled, “before I rip your heart out.”
Marius swallowed.
“The shadow bond must be completed.”
Rowan gasped.
“That could kill them both!”
Lira shook her head.
“No… it could save them. But only if they’re both strong enough.”
Kael’s heart raced.
“What does that mean?”
Marius took a breath.
“The bond you have with her is only half-made. Unstable. Dangerous. If you finish the bond now, your shadows will merge with her light.”
Kael’s voice was a whisper.
“And she survives?”
“If she is your true match,” Lira said. “If her soul can hold the darkness… she’ll live.”
“And if she can’t?” Kael asked.
Marius looked away.
“She will die instantly.”
Kael’s entire world went silent.
He stared down at Aria—this fragile, fierce girl who had stood in front of a killing spell to protect him.
His mate.
His light.
His only salvation.
He brushed his thumb over her cheek.
“Aria…” he whispered, voice breaking, “I can’t lose you.”
Rowan stepped closer.
“Kael… what will you do?”
Kael lifted Aria into his arms, holding her as if she were the most precious thing in existence.
His shadows softened, turning into a protective cocoon around them both.
Then he looked at the Elders, eyes burning with terrifying resolve.
“I will complete the bond.”
Lira’s breath caught.
“Kael—”
Kael’s voice turned to steel.
“If she dies, I die with her.”
And as the shadows rose around him like a crown of darkness—
Aria’s faint whisper echoed through his mind.
*Kael… trust me…*
He closed his eyes.
And chose her.
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- Writer
