11 - Pressure
1350 Words
[Atlas P.O.V.]
The silence in the packhouse felt heavier than it had in days. Not the comforting hush that I remember anymore, but the hush of grief and unanswered questions.
I stood by the window in my office, overlooking the courtyard where the ceremony took place but was interrupted. The patrols shifted like clockwork. Their routines remained, but my world had twisted on its axis the moment Astrid collapsed.
She was still in a coma.
Her breathing, her heartbeat, that’s all I clung to now, proof that she still lived in this world.
My wolf, Bane, paced like a caged animal.
She should have woken by now. Something’s wrong. Something more.
I know, I replied silently, my jaw tight. I rubbed a hand over my face and tried to focus on the present. I’d barely slept, barely eaten. Doctor Voss had insisted that I go home, but I was no fool. I knew that they were stalling. They were keeping me out of the room in case she slipped away, in case I shattered alongside her.
I couldn’t allow that, not now.
The investigation into the poisoning had run cold. No one had seen Liliana near Astrid’s dress before the ceremony. No one remembered her slipping away during the preparations. There had been no trace of the poison in food or drink, only on the fabric of the gown Astrid had worn with hope and joy in her eyes.
I clenched my fists. The only proof I had was motive. Liliana had every reason to want Astrid gone. She’d made it painfully clear that she would stop at nothing to claim me as her mate, even if the bond from the Moon Goddess didn’t choose her.
But motive wasn’t enough.
And Liliana knew that.
A knock came at the door. “Come in,” I said, turning to face whoever it was.
Michael entered, a thick folder in one hand and a grim look on his face. “Nothing from the border patrols, no sign of movement from the Ice Howlers.
I raised my eyebrow, surprised that Kayn was showing restraint instead of ruthlessness. “No movement?”
Michael nodded, looking equally perplexed. “Kayn hasn’t made a direct move, but we’ve picked up energy spikes on the northern ridge. My contact in the witch covens think that it might be cloaked movement.”
I narrowed my eyes, calculating trying to think as if I was Kayn. “He is testing our boundaries.”
“Or waiting for us to slip.”
We were already on high alert, but it seemed Kayn was trying to stretch the tension to its breaking point. The bastard had already made a scene at the summit. He’d claimed Astrid publicly, intended to take her back to his cold kingdom like she was some prize. But the moment she collapsed, he vanished. And no one could prove his involvement.
Convenient, Bane growled. He’s hiding something. They both are.
I sat down at my desk and opened the folder that Michael placed before me. It was filled with patrol logs, updates from scouts, and notes from Doctor Voss. But none of it mattered if Astrid didn’t open her eyes.
“She’s stable,” Michael offered, his voice soft as if he could see the pain I was trying to hide. “Doctor Voss says there are no signs of neurological decay. Her vitals are strong.”
“Then why hasn’t she woken?”
He didn’t answer, because there wasn’t one.
The poison had been meant to kill. That much I’d learned from Voss’s analysis. It was designed to shut down her organs one by one.
But Astrid had survived.
Her nature as an Eclipse Wolf had saved her, making her immune to the very thing that should have ended her life.
But not immune to pain, Bane whimpered. She still felt it all.
My gaze drifted to the far wall where a framed photo of my family was on display. My father stood in the center of the image, so strong and steady with the weight of generations in his posture. Beside him, Cleo and Cora, smiling with mischief in their eyes.
They hadn’t been allowed near Astrid since her collapse. Doctor Voss kept visitors to a minimum. Even I had to fight for minutes at her bedside.
“She asked for Rhea before the ceremony,” Michael said suddenly, likely forgetting that detail until that very moment.
I blinked at him, my eyes widening. “What?”
“Her friend, I caught her leaving an offering at the altar yesterday.”
“Find her, bring her to me.”
Rhea entered the office twenty minutes later, dark black curls damp with the melted snow and her gray eyes unreadable. She carried herself like someone who knew too much, and when she sat in the chair across from me. She did so with elegance and sadness.
“Atlas.” She greeted me simply.
“You spoke to Astrid before the ceremony?”
“I did…” Rhea trailed off.
“Tell me, you’re her friend.” I begged.
Rhea’s lips thinned in a single line for a brief moment. “And seer, though I don’t always claim the title.”
That caught my attention, Rhea’s openness surprising me. “You see the future?”
“Flashes,” She confirmed. “Threads, really. But Astrid’s thread has always been… difficult. It is like trying to watch the moon’s reflection in a broken mirror.”
I leaned forward, my arms folded and resting on my desk. “Then tell me. What do you know of the poison? Why is she still asleep?”
Rhea’s eyes closed. She stayed like that for a while, thinking. “Because the poison wasn’t just meant to kill. It was meant to sever the bond.”
A chill swept over me.
“You think it was targeted? Specifically to break our mate bond?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“But it failed.”
“It failed because Astrid is more than either of you know.” Rhea leaned forward, closing the distance between us. “And the bond? It’s still there. Just buried beneath whatever pain was meant to erase it.”
My breath caught, and I felt some relief knowing this.
“Then she’s still mine.”
“She always was.” Rhea confirmed, her eyes shining.
By the time evening fell, the packhouse buzzed with tension. Patrols rotated, eyes watched every window and every treeline. Even Alexander was offering his strategy and strength.
“We cannot strike without proof,” He told me quietly, pacing my office as he worried. “But if Kayn sets foot on our land again, we will not hold back.”
“He won’t get the chance” I said, the threat lingering in the air as I spoke.
As if summoned, a knock came at the front door. Michael answered, only to return moments later, tense. “It’s a courier, from Kayn.”
I joined him in the foyer, where a young, frost-bitten wolf stood with a scroll in hand. No words, no bow. Just the symbol of the Ice Howlers burned into the parchment. I broke the seal with a nail and read the letter.
To Alpha Atlas of Moon Stone,
The girl you claim is bound to me by arrangement and law. You may parade your title and your grief, but it changes nothing. You have until the next full moon to surrender her, or war will come to your door.
Alpha Kayn
My vision went red.
He dares…
Let him, Bane soothed me, violence a promise in his tone. We will rip him apart.
I forced myself to calm down, soothing Bane as well. Not yet, but soon.
I looked at Michael. “Prepare the outer rings, double the watch, and get ready.”
“And Astrid?”
I stared across the pack towards the hospital. “We fight for her, and if I have to burn the Ice Howlers to the ground to keep her safe, I will.”
- Writer
