Chapter Three – Torn From Home
1353 Words
The night had never felt so cruel.
Alina stood rooted to the earth long after Kael’s claim, her pulse racing, her breath shallow, her body trembling as though the ground itself were slipping out from beneath her. Around her, voices rose—shocked whispers, angered mutters, gasps of disbelief—but they all blurred into meaningless noise. The only sound that rang clear was the pounding of her own heartbeat and the low, steady growl that rumbled from the chest of the man fate had cursed her with.
Kael Blackthorn. Her mate.
The Alpha’s storm-gray eyes burned into her, pinning her in place as if invisible chains had already coiled around her wrists and ankles. His presence filled the square, so powerful it seemed the very air bent to his will. He stood tall, shoulders squared, a dark shadow under the crimson moon.
Elias’s voice shattered the silence. “You can’t take her!” His fists clenched at his sides, chest heaving with fury. “She was promised to me! She belongs to this pack!”
Alina’s breath hitched. She had known Elias since childhood—his laughter by the river, the way he always walked her home after gatherings, the promises whispered when they were too young to understand what they meant. He had been her future. Safe. Predictable. Familiar. And now, in a single night, that future was ripped apart.
Kael’s gaze finally flicked to Elias, cold and disdainful. His lips curved into something between a smirk and a snarl. “The Goddess doesn’t recognize promises. She chose.” His hand lifted, pointing at Alina with terrifying certainty. “She is mine.”
The words fell like an axe through the square. Her pack shifted uneasily, torn between outrage and fear. The Alpha of Crescent Shadow, a broad, steady man named Roran, stepped forward, his expression grim. “Blackthorn,” he said evenly, “you trespass on sacred ground. You come uninvited to our festival and dare to lay claim to one of ours. Leave her.”
Kael’s growl deepened, rolling like distant thunder. “You dare to defy fate?”
Roran’s eyes narrowed. “I dare to protect my people.”
The two Alphas locked eyes, and for a moment, the night felt as if it would c***k open into war. Alina’s hands clenched into fists, her breath ragged. Please, she begged silently, please don’t let this happen. Please don’t let him take me.
Kael broke the silence first. “I will not leave without her. She carries my mark, my bond. If you keep her, you invite blood. And I do not promise mercy.”
The threat lingered in the air like smoke, heavy and suffocating. Warriors of Crescent Shadow bristled, some baring their teeth, others glancing nervously at their Alpha. But even they knew what name Kael Blackthorn carried. He had razed villages. He had broken packs that stood against him. He was a wolf who fought without hesitation and conquered without remorse.
Roran’s jaw tightened. His gaze flicked to Alina—young, trembling, caught between two worlds. Regret softened his eyes. “Child,” he said quietly, “is this true? Did the bond reveal itself to you?”
Alina’s throat closed. She wanted to say no, to deny it, to scream until the truth itself shattered. But she couldn’t lie. The bond pulsed in her chest, undeniable, unrelenting. Even as she resisted, it tied her to Kael, pulling her like gravity she couldn’t escape. Tears burned her eyes as she whispered, “Yes.”
The word broke Elias. His face contorted with rage and pain, his hands trembling as though he might tear the bond from her by sheer force of will. “Alina, no! Don’t say that! You don’t have to—”
“She does,” Kael interrupted sharply. His tone brooked no argument.
In two strides, he closed the space between them. Alina gasped as his hand wrapped around her wrist—large, strong, radiating heat that seared through her skin. Sparks erupted at the contact, the mate bond flaring to life with dizzying force. Her knees weakened, her body betraying her even as her mind screamed to pull away.
“Let me go!” she cried, twisting in his grip. But Kael’s hold was unyielding, firm yet strangely careful, as though he would never allow harm to touch her—not from others, not even from herself.
Her mother rushed forward, desperation in her voice. “Please! She is our daughter. Don’t take her. She’s too young, too innocent—”
Kael’s eyes cut to her mother, a cold warning flashing within them. “She belongs to me now.”
Alina’s father stepped in front of his mate, his own body trembling with suppressed fury. “You’ll tear her from her family? From the only life she’s known?”
Kael’s expression didn’t waver. “I will do whatever the bond demands.”
The air thickened with grief. Her mother’s sobs filled the night, her father’s shoulders slumping as though he bore a weight too heavy to carry. Alina’s heart splintered. She wanted to throw herself into their arms, to beg them not to let her go, but Kael’s grip anchored her to him. The bond hummed between them like chains forged by the Goddess herself.
Elias surged forward again, his voice breaking. “I’ll fight you for her!”
Kael turned slowly, his gaze sharp as a blade. “You wouldn’t survive a single strike.”
And though Elias’s rage burned brightly, the truth of Kael’s words silenced him. He staggered back, his eyes wild with grief.
Alina’s chest ached so fiercely she thought her heart might shatter entirely. This wasn’t love. This wasn’t choice. This was fate, cruel and merciless.
Kael leaned down, his breath brushing her ear, his voice a low command meant only for her. “It is time to come home.”
Home. The word twisted bitterly inside her. His home was not hers. His world was not the one she belonged to. Yet as he pulled her toward the edge of the square, no one dared stop him. Even her own Alpha bowed his head in reluctant submission, knowing that to resist Kael Blackthorn was to invite ruin upon them all.
Alina’s feet stumbled across the dirt path, dragged by his firm grasp. She glanced back one last time. Her mother’s hands were clasped in prayer, her father’s face carved with helpless sorrow. Elias stood broken, his fists bloodied from nails digging too hard into skin.
And then the village disappeared behind her.
The journey to Kael’s territory blurred in Alina’s memory. The night swallowed her, the forest vast and unkind, branches scratching at her gown as Kael guided her through the darkness. His warriors flanked them, silent and watchful, shadows with eyes that gleamed in the moonlight.
Alina’s wrist throbbed where Kael’s hand still enclosed it. She fought the tears burning her eyes, refusing to let him see her weakness. Silence stretched between them until she could bear it no longer.
“Why me?” she whispered. Her voice cracked, fragile. “You don’t even believe in mates. Why would the Goddess tie me to you?”
Kael glanced down at her, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, he said nothing, only studied her as though she were a puzzle he hadn’t decided whether to solve or destroy. Finally, his voice rumbled low. “I didn’t ask for this. But fate gave you to me. And I take what is mine.”
His words were merciless, yet beneath them lingered something Alina couldn’t decipher—a flicker of confusion, of something almost vulnerable. It vanished as quickly as it appeared, swallowed by his ruthless certainty.
Alina turned her face away, silent tears sliding down her cheeks. She felt like a bird torn from its nest, wings clipped, heart caged. The forest loomed endlessly ahead, and with every step, her old life faded further into the shadows.
Whatever awaited her in Kael Blackthorn’s world, she knew one truth with aching clarity:
She was no longer free.
- Writer
