The Pull Beneath the Pain
1116 Words
POV: Kael
The moonlight always used to calm me. Now, it only reminded me of what I couldn’t reach.
I stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the northern ridge, where the wind whistled like the echoes of broken promises. Below me, the forest stretched on, a dark sea of tangled green. Somewhere down there, Aria trained alone. Again.
I should have been with her. Should have told her to rest, to stop pushing herself so hard. But every time I got close, something inside me froze.
She was my mate. I knew that now.
Not because of some blinding revelation or a sudden surge of affection. It was the way my wolf stirred whenever she entered a room. Restless. Unsettled. Hungry, but not for blood. It was like trying to breathe underwater—painful, unnatural, wrong. Something about us wasn’t clicking the way it should have. And I hated it.
The curse had always been there, a chain around my soul. But now it had found her too. Wrapped its claws around Aria, marked her as mine—and then ripped away the one thing we were supposed to have. The bond. That sacred thread that tied mates together.
I pressed a hand to my chest, over the place where that connection should live. Nothing. No warmth, no whisper of her emotions. Just the echo of what could have been.
When she reached for me on the night of the full moon and tried to force the bond, it shattered something between us. Her scream still haunted me, raw and full of agony. I’d never heard anything like it.
And I’d done nothing.
She’d collapsed, and I just stood there. Frozen. Cowardly. Watching the light fade from her eyes as she screamed for a bond I couldn’t give.
Now she was distant. Not just physically. Her energy recoiled from mine every time I came near. She was still here, still part of the pack, still fulfilling her role. But emotionally? Spiritually? We were miles apart. The bridge between us was splintered and burning.
A sound behind me made me turn. Dren stepped into view, his eyes tight with concern.
“She’s in the lower field,” he said, without greeting. “Pushing herself hard. Again.”
I didn’t answer.
“You should go to her.”
“She doesn’t want me there,” I said.
“She needs you there.”
I looked out over the trees again. The wind carried her scent up the ridge—pine, moonlight, and something uniquely hers.
“The others are starting to talk,” Dren added. “Some say the prophecy was wrong. That you’re not her true mate.”
My jaw clenched.
“They doubt her?” I asked, my voice sharper than intended.
“They doubt you,” he replied, voice level.
“Let them.”
Dren stepped closer. “You’ve lost more than sleep lately. You’re unraveling.”
I didn’t want to hear it. Not from him. Not from anyone. I turned and walked toward the woods.
“Kael,” he called after me. “Fix it. Before there’s nothing left to fix.”
I didn’t answer. Just kept moving.
The forest swallowed me whole. Shadows danced between the trees as the moon shifted behind the clouds. I followed her scent like a lifeline, until the faint clang of metal reached my ears. Then a sharp gasp. And silence.
I found her in a clearing, slumped to her knees. Her blades lay forgotten in the dirt, and she was drenched in sweat. Every part of her body trembled.
“Aria.”
She didn’t look at me.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” I moved closer. “You’re burning yourself out.”
She pushed herself to stand, barely steady. “I have to keep going. I have to get stronger.”
“Stronger for what?”
“If the bond won’t come back, then I need to learn to survive without it.”
“That’s not your burden.”
She finally looked at me, eyes wild and glassy.
“No? Then whose is it, Kael? Because I’m the one who felt like my soul was torn in half. I’m the one who felt every inch of rejection in my bones.”
I flinched.
“I didn’t reject you,” I said. “The curse—”
“Doesn’t change what it felt like.”
Her words hit harder than any enemy ever had. She took a shaky breath and looked away.
“I felt something that night,” I said. “Not the bond, not completely. But pain. Yours. My wolf felt it too.”
“Then why didn’t you move?” she asked, voice low. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t.”
I reached for her. She stepped back.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “I can’t keep trying if I’m the only one willing to fight for us.”
“I am fighting,” I said. “You just can’t see it.”
“Then show me, Kael. Prove it. Because I’m running out of pieces to give.”
She turned and disappeared into the trees.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Her words ran on a loop in my head, each one a knife.
So I went to the archive.
The den beneath the old stones was cold and silent. Dust coated the ancient scrolls and tomes. I lit a lantern and started searching.
Curses. Bond breaks. Blood rituals. Theories of soul connections. Most of it was nonsense. Some of it was too old to matter. But I kept digging. Desperation drives pride to ash.
Then I found something.
The Sacrifice Path.
It was written in the old tongue, barely decipherable. I translated it slowly, line by line.
A severed bond. A cursed Alpha. A wolf trapped inside silence. A prophecy tied to pain.
And then—sacrifice. The forced reawakening of a bond came at a cost.
The first price: the wolf.
The second: the soul.
I stared at the parchment until the ink blurred.
Was this what had happened to Aria? Had she tried to sacrifice something just to reach me?
Had I let her?
I slammed the scroll closed and sat back on the floor. My fingers trembled.
No.
I wouldn’t let it end this way.
Tomorrow, I’d call the council. I’d pull every favor, search every shadow, beg the witches of the Northern Wastes if I had to. Because if Aria gave up her wolf for me, then I would give up anything—everything—to give it back.
Even if it meant losing myself in the process.
- Writer
