CHAPTER THREE
1484 Words
Chapter Three: The Bond That Binds
POV: Lira Velasquez
---
By the third day, I started to forget what freedom felt like.
Not because the Blackfang manor was cruel — no, it was far worse than that.
It was beautiful.
Safe.
Deceptively kind.
There were no chains here. No prison bars or beatings. No one forced me to wear the Luna mark or dress a certain way or kneel at anyone’s feet. Instead, the servants smiled politely. Mira brought me warm tea at night. The library stayed open. I could walk the halls without being stopped.
But that was the most dangerous part.
Because the longer I stayed in this silent, elegant place, the more I started to question if I was really a prisoner… or something worse.
A willing captive.
---
Kael hadn’t spoken to me since our strange, quiet moment in the library. I kept thinking about what he said — “You just happened to be the only one foolish enough to walk into it.”
Was that what I was?
Foolish?
Or was I just surviving the only way I knew how?
That morning, I found myself drifting toward the west wing. Mira was busy, and I didn’t want to stay cooped up in the velvet-draped room that felt more like a display case than a place to sleep. The west side of the manor was older. Less maintained. Dustier, with colder air and creaking floorboards.
But it was honest.
The kind of honesty you could smell.
Like secrets.
I wandered past portraits of wolves I didn’t recognize, their eyes dull with time and varnish. One frame had been knocked off the wall, left leaning sideways as if no one cared to fix it. There were claw marks on the stone wall nearby.
Old ones.
I should’ve turned back.
But something tugged at me.
Not curiosity. Not boredom.
Something deeper.
Like the bond.
---
At the end of the corridor stood a black door — not painted black, but built that way. Wood so dark it absorbed the light. It was cracked open, just slightly.
And I knew, somehow, what was behind it before I stepped inside.
Kael.
Or… his past.
I pushed the door open.
It wasn’t a throne room or a secret dungeon or anything like I imagined an Alpha’s private space would be.
It was a study.
Or maybe a den.
The air was thick with the scent of cedar and aged leather. Books piled in corners. Whiskey in a crystal glass. A set of weights in the corner. A cracked mirror leaning against the far wall — not hanging, just left there like someone couldn’t decide if they hated it or loved it.
I stepped closer to it.
And saw myself.
Only… not.
My reflection looked stronger. Sharper. Less pale, more alive. There was a strange glow to my eyes, a flush to my cheeks that didn’t match how I felt inside.
And then—
“You shouldn’t be in here.”
His voice, low and rough, broke the silence.
I spun.
Kael stood in the doorway, a shadow in a black shirt, arms crossed.
“I—I didn’t mean to intrude,” I stammered. “The door was open.”
He didn’t move. Didn’t raise his voice.
“It’s my father’s room,” he said simply. “I left it the way it was.”
I looked around again. “Even the broken mirror?”
His eyes flicked to it. “He shattered it the night my mother died.”
“And you never fixed it?”
“No point.”
He stepped inside finally, walking past me without touching, his hand grazing the edge of the desk where a silver dagger gleamed beneath a pile of papers.
“My father was a cruel man,” he said quietly. “But he loved her. When she died, it broke something in him. Maybe everything.”
“What happened to him?”
Kael’s silver gaze lifted to mine.
“I didn’t let him become worse.”
I swallowed.
That wasn’t an answer.
But it was enough.
---
That night, I stared at the cursed mirror in my room.
I couldn't stop thinking about the one in the study.
Why did they unsettle me so much?
I stood barefoot on the cold floor, wrapping a shawl around my shoulders, and stared into the glass.
At first, all I saw was myself.
And then… I didn’t.
My reflection blurred — not in shape, but in essence. My eyes were glowing faintly. My hair, longer. A thin scar curved down my collarbone. I looked older. Stronger. Dangerous.
I blinked, and the image was gone.
Was I losing my mind?
Or was the bond changing me?
---
The next day, I sought out Mira.
I found her in the greenhouse, her fingers buried in the soil of a planter box, humming softly to a sleeping orchid.
“Mira,” I said, “can I ask you something?”
She looked up, warm-eyed but cautious. “Of course.”
“What do you know about Kael’s… curse?”
The hum in the air changed.
She dusted her hands off slowly and stepped closer, lowering her voice.
“No one really knows the truth. But there are rumors. Always have been.”
“Rumors like what?”
“That he was born under a blood moon. That his mother died to protect him from something ancient. That every Luna he’s tried to bond with… either left or died within a year.”
My breath caught.
“A year?”
Mira hesitated. “Some say the bond drives them mad. Some say it consumes them entirely.”
“Why would my father agree to this?”
She looked away. “Because power demands a price. And you were the most valuable thing he had to offer.”
---
That night, the dreams came back.
Not wolves this time.
Fire.
I stood in the forest as trees burned around me. Ash fell like snow. The sky glowed red. And from the flames stepped Kael — shirt torn, eyes burning with silver light.
He reached for me.
But when I touched him, I burned.
---
I woke with a scream in my throat.
The room was dark.
Still.
But I felt him.
Not in the room — but in my head. On the edge of my awareness. Like a presence waiting just outside my skin.
I threw the covers off and ran to the door.
Fling it open—
And there he was.
Standing in the hallway like he’d been waiting for me.
Our eyes met.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “This bond. This cage. I can’t breathe in it.”
He didn’t speak.
Didn’t flinch.
Just… looked at me.
I shoved past him, but he caught my arm — not harshly, just enough to stop me.
“Come with me,” he said.
---
He led me to a tower at the top of the manor I hadn’t seen before.
The air was cold. The roof open to the stars. You could see the whole forest from here — wild, endless, silver under the moonlight.
“This is where I come when I need to feel real,” he said.
I stared out at the horizon. “Is this what freedom looks like to you?”
He glanced sideways. “Isn’t it?”
“No,” I whispered. “Freedom is being able to walk away.”
Kael stepped closer.
“You think you’re caged,” he said. “Because your father gave you to me.”
“Didn’t he?”
Kael’s jaw tightened. “He didn’t give me power over you, Lira. You did.”
I turned to him, heart pounding. “I didn’t choose this!”
“But you didn’t fight it.”
“I couldn’t!”
“You could’ve run.”
“To what?” I snapped. “Death? Life as a rogue? My pack would’ve paid the price. My sisters. My people.”
He nodded slowly. “And yet, you stayed. You chose to carry their burden. That takes strength.”
I stared at him, throat tight.
No one had ever called me strong before.
Not even myself.
He reached out gently, brushing a thumb beneath my eye.
“I won’t force the bond,” he said. “Not now. Not ever, if that’s truly what you want. But if you accept it — on your own terms — you’ll see.”
“See what?”
His voice dropped to a whisper.
“That it’s not a cage.”
I looked up at him, shivering in the cold wind.
“Then what is it?”
Kael stepped closer, until our breath mingled.
“A key.”
And suddenly, I didn’t know if I wanted to run anymore.
Or unlock whatever waited inside both of us.
- Writer
