Chapter Eight: Taken
1613 Words
The mate bond sharpened its edge the moment the battle drew to an end.
Kael’s presence clung to every corner of my senses now. His emotions seeped into my mind unannounced—sudden sharp irritation that flared over breakfast, a warm rush of fondness that washed over me mid-book, making me glance up to catch his gaze fixed on me across the hall.
It threw my whole sense of self off-kilter, bearing his feelings atop mine like a second layer of skin. I could no longer tell where my own heart ended and his began.
When the confusion grew too heavy, I sought Elara out in the library, her usual haunt surrounded by tattered ancient tomes thick with the scent of old parchment and accumulated wisdom. “It’s synchronization,” she explained gently. “The more time you spend side by side, sharing every joy and hardship, the deeper your bond grows.”
“It feels like I’m fading away inside my own body.”
“You’re growing into something bigger. Those two things aren’t the same.”
I couldn’t bring myself to trust her words, not fully.
That evening, I tracked Kael down to the rooftop—our quiet refuge, the place we fled to when the compound’s walls felt far too suffocating. Above us, the stars spun slow and distant, cold to all the chaos below.
“Can you sense everything I feel?” I asked him quietly.
“Every single sensation, without fail.”
“All my fleeting moods, every stray thought?”
“Only feelings, never your private thoughts.” He turned to face me, moonlight gilding his amber irises. “This bond doesn’t erase our separate selves. It builds a bridge between them.”
“Then why do I keep feeling like I’m drowning under it?”
He fell silent for a long stretch, letting the night air hang between us. At last, he spoke softly: “Because you keep resisting its pull.”
“Why shouldn’t I push back? I was just an ordinary human dragged into some ancient prophecy. I never asked for any of this fate.”
“No, you didn’t ask—but you chose to stay.” He stepped closer, lifting one palm to cup my cheek, his warmth steady enough to ground my racing mind. “The second you turned your back on running, Maya. The split second you decided not to flee. That was your choice to accept all of it.”
Before I could stop myself, I melted into the comfort of his palm. “I have no idea how to navigate any of this.”
“Neither do I.” A soft, tender smile tugged at his lips. “That’s what makes every second between us genuine.”
He leaned in then, his kiss light and tentative, a silent plea for my consent. I pulled him tight against me to answer.
The bond ignited bright between us; where it had once felt sharp and biting, it now unfurled like outstretched wings.
“Does the connection still ache for you?” he murmured against my lips.
“Only when you’re too far away.”
“Then I’ll never stray far from your side.”
He kept that vow faithfully.
Chapter Seven: Betrayal
The weeks that followed were the brightest, most peaceful stretch I’d ever lived through.
That calm should’ve been my first red flag.
Kael and I slipped into a gentle, almost domestic routine: morning combat drills, afternoon strategy briefings, slow evening wanderings deep in the surrounding woods. The bond hummed low and constant in the back of my mind, a quiet melody that softened every sight and sound around me. I caught myself grinning out of nowhere, lost to the warmth of his distant happiness through our link.
I should’ve known this peace couldn’t last.
Rylan vanished without a trace on a Tuesday—the exact same day the first enemy strike hit our territory. I spotted the odd overlap instantly, yet I said nothing, clinging to the foolish hope I was misreading the signs.
“I don’t buy this story for a second,” Sasha paced restlessly across the war room, her boots echoing against solid stone. “The timing lines up too perfectly, the attack’s target is too precise, and his trail cuts off clean with no explanation.”
“Every soul has a weakness someone can exploit,” Dmitri rumbled in his low, graveled voice.
“Not Rylan. He’d never turn on us.”
But all evidence pointed straight to him.
He stumbled back to the compound three days later, covered in fresh bruises, spilling apologies left and right. Hidden inside the lining of his jacket sat a tiny tracking beacon. I watched the betrayal unfold in slow, crushing clarity: Sasha uncovering the device, Kael’s warmth freezing over into icy rage, Rylan breaking down in sobs as he confessed Viktor held his little sister hostage to force his compliance.
“Lock him in the holding cells,” Kael ordered, his voice stripped of all emotion. “We’ll gather the council at dawn to decide what becomes of him.”
That same night, Kael escorted me to a hidden bunker carved deep beneath the compound’s foundations. Its walls were lined with silver to dampen supernatural power, the entry door reinforced with unbreakable steel, and stockpiles of supplies lined the shelves to last a full month.
“I won’t leave you trapped down here alone.”
“You won’t have a choice.” He framed my face between both hands, brushing away tears I hadn’t realized were streaming down my cheeks. “You need to survive this. Viktor now knows every detail of our plan, and he’s coming for you next.”
“Let him come. I’ll stand and fight him head-on.”
“Not this time.” His kiss crashed into mine—raw, desperate, tasting like a final goodbye. “I can’t bear to lose you.”
“You won’t.”
Then he left.
The heavy steel door sealed shut behind him with a hollow sound, as if a tomb had locked itself tight.
I sat isolated in the silver-walled room, the bond thrumming between us like a fragile lifeline.
Come back to me, I begged silently through our link.
His reply drifted to me, faint yet unshakable.
I will, always.
Chapter Eight: Taken
Three full days passed trapped in the bunker. Silence filled every corner, broken only by my own ragged breathing and the faint drip of water echoing through the underground tunnels far off.
The mate bond was the only thing keeping me anchored to hope. Through it, I felt every ounce of Kael’s bone-deep exhaustion, his unceasing pain, his single-minded drive to reach me. I sensed every blow he took in battle, every fresh wound tearing open on his skin.
On the third night, the bunker door creaked open.
It wasn’t Kael standing in the entryway.
Viktor loomed in the frame like a living nightmare made flesh. He towered taller than I remembered, his frame broader and harder, crimson eyes glinting with cold, victorious satisfaction. He moved with the deliberate, fluid grace of a predator stalking its prey, every motion sharp and calculated.
“Hello, Maya.”
I lunged for the blade Kael had left for my protection. Viktor caught my wrist mid-swing, twisted it hard, and sent the knife skittering across the stone floor out of reach.
“Brave move. Foolish, but brave.”
He struck me hard across the jaw. My skull slammed against the wall, and my vision blurred at the edges.
When consciousness returned, I found myself locked inside an iron cage.
The Bloodmoon pack’s compound was built for brutality and utility, no comfort spared anywhere. Cold iron bars surrounded me, damp stone seeping moisture underfoot, and the thick stench of dried blood clung to every surface. As guards marched me down the hallways, countless wolf shifters stared through the bars, their gazes hungry and expectant.
Viktor stepped up to my cage, a thin silver dagger glinting deadly in his grasp.
“This is a bond-breaker blade,” he said, answering the unspoken terror in my eyes. “One single cut, and your link to Kael will burn away completely. He’ll never feel your emotions again. He’ll never track you down.”
I pressed my spine flat against the cold metal bars. “You’re completely deranged.”
“I’m simply practical.” He dropped to a crouch, bringing his blood-red eyes level with mine. The prophecy’s chosen vessel could just as easily belong to me as it ever was his.”
“You will never lay a hand on me.”
“Watch closely.”
He unlocked the cage’s rusted latch and pushed the metal door wide open.
I fought with every scrap of strength I possessed. All my years of combat training kicked in, instinct driving every punch and dodge. But I was starved, worn thin, and outmatched in every physical sense.
A brutal backhand sent me sprawling across the cold stone floor.
“There’s that fire I’ve been waiting to see.” He wiped a streak of blood from his own split lip, a cruel smirk pulling at his mouth. “Breaking that spirit of yours will be far more satisfying this way.”
I lay gasping on the ground, the metallic tang of blood coating my tongue, the silver blade glinting menacingly just out of my reach.
I screamed for Kael through the fraying bond between us.
His response crashed over me like rolling thunder, fierce and unyielding.
I’m on my way. Hold fast for me.
I clung to that promise, and refused to let go.
- Writer
