Bound by Blood and Flame

Chapter Four: The Night Everything Changed

Two and a half years ago

The moon was silver and heavy the night I left, hanging above the forest like an omen.

Lena met me beneath the ash tree, where the wildflowers used to grow. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, her eyes red-rimmed but blazing.

"You’re really going," she said, voice barely above a whisper.

I nodded.

“The Council gave the order.”

“I don’t give a damn about the Council.” Her hands balled into fists. “You said you’d fight it.”

“I did.” I stepped closer. “I lost.”

She turned her back to me. “Convenient.”

“That’s not fair.”

“No,” she said, spinning around. “What’s not fair is that you’re leaving me here with him.”

My chest tightened. “I didn’t know he’d claim you.”

She flinched at the word claim.

“Kellan made it clear. You’re gone, I’m his. He’s been waiting for this.”

She looked at me then, and I saw it—the raw fear behind her fury.

“I’ll come back,” I promised. “I’ll find a way.”

“You don’t get it,” she whispered. “Once he marks me, it’s over. There won’t be a ‘way.’ I won’t be me anymore.”

The mark. The bond. The Alpha’s seal.

I knew what it would do. How it would trap her.

We were out of time.

“I love you,” I said, and the words hurt more than any blade ever had. “I always will.”

Tears streaked down her cheeks. She stepped into me, burying her face in my chest. I held her like I was already losing her.

That night, under the moon’s sorrowful eye, we didn’t say goodbye.

We burned.

We clung to each other like drowning souls, every kiss a promise, every touch a goodbye we didn’t want to speak. The forest held its breath around us.

And afterward, as she lay tangled in my arms, I whispered:

“If anything ever happens… if you ever need me—just look at the moon. I’ll find you.”

She pressed her hand to my chest. “What if I’m already gone?”

“Then I’ll go to war to bring you back.”

But I was too late.

By the time I returned, she was marked.

And she had a child.