The Bond.
1217 Words
I don’t know what scares me more, the idea of telling him the truth… or living forever in silence.
My hands moved to his waist, my forehead leaning on his chest. He wore white jeans with a black belt. The jeans were slightly baggy. I liked the way my hands rested on his toned waist.
“Is there anything you wish to tell me?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Are you sure?”
My chest hurts. I felt like crying. I wanted to scream and tell him the truth, but I was terrified. I don’t want to lose him.
I’m scared that if he knows, it will break our family apart. He has done so much to keep this family together since our parents died. I can’t do that to him.
I don’t want him to get hurt.
My tears fell.
“Autumn,” he murmured, wiping my tears with his thumb when he pulled my face up. “Tell me. What’s wrong?”
“I love you,” I said through sobs. “I love you so much, Temp.”
Temp was the short name for Temperance, and his nickname too. I was the only one who called him by that name.
“I would do anything for you not to leave me.”
“Hey. Hey.” He hushed me, pressing a finger gently to my lips. “Relax, Ari.”
I gasped between sobs. I couldn’t stop crying.
“Where is all this coming from?” he asked softly.
“I love you… so much.” I repeated.
Temperance pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly against his chest. His embrace was warm and steady, his hand moving slowly up my back before resting at my waist. He pressed a gentle kiss near my ear, fingers brushing through my hair as if I were something fragile.
“Autumn,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “I love you more.”
My throat closed.
I couldn’t answer him.
I just nodded against his shoulder and held on tighter, my fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt as tears streamed down my face.
This is wrong.
The thought pressed against my mind no matter how badly I tried to ignore it.
He’s my brother.
The weight of that truth made my chest ache even more.
“Hey, baby girl—” The door creaked open. “And my big brother.”
Raelith leaned against the frame, a smirk tugging at his lips when he saw us wrapped together. The tone in his voice didn’t match the words. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
“The full moon’s almost up, lovebirds.”
I pulled away immediately, wiping at my cheeks as heat rushed to my face.
Temperance rolled his eyes slightly, rubbing the side of his head.
“Seriously,” Raelith added with a short laugh, stepping back into the house. “It’s time.”
The door shut again, leaving silence between us. I wiped my tears once more, trying to steady my breathing.
We were alone again.
Temperance studied me for a long moment before speaking.
“Do you remember what I told you four years ago?” he asked quietly.
I did.
It was the night after our parents died. I cried until I couldn’t breathe, and he held me just like this.
“I’ll take care of you,” he had promised.
I swallowed and nodded. “Yes. I remember.”
His expression softened.
“Then trust me when I say I wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” he said, his voice lowering as if he could shield me from the world through sheer will. He exhaled slowly. “Okay, Autumn?”
I searched his face for hesitation and found none.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I trust you.”
He squeezed my shoulders gently before guiding me down the stairs toward the gathering outside. The air had shifted. The ceremony circle was already forming, and above us the full moon was climbing higher.
I felt a sting at my heart.
The closer we moved to the clearing, the stronger the pull became.
My skin prickled. Pulse quickened.
My wolf stirred violently beneath my ribs.
Heat flooded my veins without warning, sharp and invasive. My breathing grew shallow. The scent of wolves, earth, and anticipation pressed against my senses until it felt suffocating.
No.
Not now.
“Uh… I need water,” I muttered quickly, stepping away before Temperance could question me.
I hurried back toward the house, each step growing heavier as the moonlight stretched across the ground like a tether dragging me back. I shoved the door open and stumbled inside.
The shift slammed into me mid-stride.
I barely made it to the kitchen. I locked the door with shaking hands, before collapsing against the counter. My fingers dug into the wood as another wave tore through me.
“Autumn.”
My knees buckled and I crashed to the floor. The change began. Bones snapped out of place with sickening cracks. My spine arched violently, ribs expanding as if something inside me was clawing to get out. Agony ripped through my muscles as they twisted and reformed.
“Ahhhhh—!”
The sound that tore from my throat wasn’t human.
It was a raw, guttural roar, dragged up from somewhere deep and feral. It scraped against my vocal cords and echoed off the kitchen walls, vibrating through the cabinets and into the floorboards.
“Autumn, open the door.”
Raelith.
His voice sounded distant, drowned beneath the pounding of my heart.
I dropped to all fours as another surge hit me. My fingers bent unnaturally, nails splitting before lengthening into claws. My jaw ached, then my fangs forced their way through my gums, sharp and merciless.
I roared again.
It shook my chest, tore through my lungs, rattled the glass in the windows. The sound was thick with pain and fury, the sound of a wolf fighting herself.
The bond was pulling.
It felt like invisible chains wrapping around my ribs, tightening every time I resisted. The mating instinct demanded surrender.
“I won’t,” I gasped, though my voice was already distorting.
The moonlight pouring through the window intensified the torment. It burned against my skin like acid. My wolf pushed harder, desperate to complete the bond, desperate to answer the call of her mate.
Every time I resisted, the pain doubled.
My spine felt like it was being split in half. My muscles convulsed violently. My claws scraped deep grooves into the wooden floor as I thrashed, trying to escape a battle happening inside my own body.
Another roar burst from me, It tore through the house like a shockwave.
The refusal to bond was tearing me apart.
My wolf howled in fury within me, her instinct screaming to run to him, to claim him, to end this suffering. The bond pulsed like a living thing, bright and suffocating.
"Temperance," I begged within. "Help me."
Even as tears streamed down my face. As my bones shifted halfway and snapped back. The pain became so overwhelming it blurred my vision and drowned every coherent thought.
I rolled onto my side, curling in on myself as another wave of transformation ripped through me.
"Temperance."
- Writer
