Chapter Five: The Severed Bond
1114 Words
Kade Thorn stood beneath the hanging lanterns of the Alpha’s war room, his knuckles bloodied and jaw clenched so tightly it ached. The cell had been empty. The guards unconscious. And Aria’s scent—wild rose and rain—lingered faintly in the air, already fading with the dawn.
She was gone.
“She didn’t break out on her own,” Garrick growled from across the table, his fists slamming against the carved oak. “Someone helped her. A traitor within the pack.”
Kade didn’t answer. His mind was elsewhere—trapped in that moment when Aria looked at him in the Circle, begging him to see her, to believe her. And he hadn’t. He’d turned away. Because he was afraid. Because if he chose her, he would lose everything.
But now?
Now he had lost her anyway.
“I want her hunted,” Garrick said. “The Moon Hunt resumes at dusk. She is no longer a prisoner. She is prey.”
“She was never prey,” Kade muttered.
“What did you say?”
Kade looked up, his golden eyes flaring. “I said she was never prey.”
A long, tense silence followed.
Garrick stared him down. “You’re too close. I warned you about the danger of getting attached. She bewitched you—”
“She didn’t need to,” Kade snapped. “She was loyal. And we betrayed her.”
The room fell deathly quiet.
Beta Sienna stepped forward from the shadows, her expression carefully neutral. “She’s dangerous now. You saw the prophecy. If she’s truly Moonblood—”
“She didn’t even know,” Kade cut in. “And we pushed her right into their hands.”
“You speak like she’s the victim,” Sienna said coldly. “She murdered Liana.”
“No,” Kade said. “She didn’t.”
Sienna blinked. “You believe her?”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
Sienna’s mask cracked—just for a heartbeat. Her jaw tightened. Her eyes flashed.
“I see,” she said quietly.
Garrick stood tall. “You will lead the Hunt, Kade. If you want to prove your loyalty to this pack—to me—you will bring her back. Dead or alive.”
Kade didn’t flinch.
But his silence was answer enough.
---
Miles away, Aria stood at the edge of the sanctuary’s training field, her fists wrapped in linen and her breath coming hard and fast. The Moonclaw warriors watched from a distance, some intrigued, others doubtful.
She had spent hours punching at a target carved from stone, sweat dripping down her spine. The ache in her shoulders was sharp, her knuckles raw—but still, she kept going.
Because pain was better than silence. Pain reminded her she was still alive.
“You’re burning yourself out,” Ronan said from behind her, arms crossed. “You don’t have to prove anything today.”
She didn’t stop. “I do. I have to prove it to myself.”
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t, I’ll remember that no one believed me. Not even him.”
She struck the stone again. And again. Until her arms trembled.
Finally, she stopped, her chest heaving.
Ronan approached, gently lowering her hands. “Kade didn’t choose you. But maybe that’s the best thing he could’ve done.”
She met his eyes. “Why?”
“Because it freed you from needing his permission to rise.”
Her throat tightened. She didn’t want to cry in front of anyone. But something in his words cracked the shell around her heart.
Ronan held out a waterskin. She drank, then sank onto a nearby bench, muscles twitching.
“Tell me the truth,” she said quietly. “Do you think I’m really... her? The White Wolf?”
“I think you’re something new,” Ronan said. “Something the prophecy didn’t see coming.”
“That’s not exactly comforting.”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Good. Because comfort never made a warrior.”
Before she could respond, Maeve appeared at the edge of the field. Her eyes were clouded, but her voice rang clear.
“They’re coming.”
Ronan stiffened. “Bloodfang?”
Maeve nodded. “He leads the Hunt himself.”
Aria’s heart dropped. “Kade?”
“His bond with you has frayed,” Maeve said. “But not broken. He still feels you. Still follows the tether.”
Aria stood slowly. “Then we break it.”
Both Ronan and Maeve turned toward her.
“What do you mean?” Ronan asked.
“I mean I’m done being bound to someone who left me to die. I want the bond severed.”
Maeve stepped forward. “You know what that will cost?”
Aria met her gaze. “More than what I’ve already lost?”
The seer tilted her head. “Come.”
---
The ritual chamber lay deep beneath the sanctuary, its walls pulsing with ancient power. Moonlight poured through a narrow shaft high in the ceiling, illuminating a stone dais etched with glowing runes.
Maeve stood at the center. Aria approached, Ronan a silent presence behind her.
“To sever a bond,” Maeve said, “is to rip soul from soul. It will hurt. You may lose the memory of his scent, his voice. The dreams may fade. But you will also gain something.”
“What?” Aria asked.
“Yourself. Whole.”
Aria stepped onto the dais, heart thundering.
Maeve lifted a ceremonial dagger carved from moonstone. “Kneel.”
She did.
The blade hovered above Aria’s palm.
“Do you accept the price?”
“I do.”
Maeve sliced a thin line across Aria’s skin. Her blood shimmered silver as it hit the stone. The runes flared to life, pulsing with power. Pain exploded in her chest—sharp, searing, ripping through her ribs like fire. She gasped, eyes wide, as the bond inside her stretched, pulled taut, then—
Snapped.
A scream tore from her throat. The world went white.
When it cleared, she was on her knees, shaking.
But the ache in her heart was gone.
Kade was gone.
“I... I don’t feel him anymore,” she whispered.
“You’re free,” Maeve said gently.
Ronan knelt beside her, gripping her shoulder. “You did it.”
“No,” she said, rising to her feet. “Now I’ll do it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”
Aria turned toward the surface. Her eyes gleamed like polished steel.
“I’m going to show the Bloodfang what it means to hunt the wrong wolf.”
- Writer
