*FERAL: claimed by my rival*

*The Fall*

*CHAPTER 11: THE FALL*

I didn’t sleep.

The words on the glass wouldn’t leave me alone.

_It’s not over._

Corin was still out there. And after yesterday — the arrows, the kiss, Kael taking a silver bolt for me — “not over” felt like a threat.

The Bond was quiet. Too quiet. Like it was sulking.

A knock at 5am.

“Training yard. 10 minutes. Full uniform.”

North Ridge guard.

No mention of Kael. But I knew he’d be there.

---

*THE COLD WAR BEGINS*

The yard was frost-covered. Dawn hadn’t broken yet.

Kael was already there.

Standing 10 feet away. Arms crossed. Jaw tight.

Two Blackthorn guards behind him.

Two North Ridge guards behind me.

We didn’t look at each other.

Alpha Darius stepped forward. “Since neither of you can be trusted apart, you train together. Every day. Until we find a way to sever the Bond without casualties.”

“Sever,” Kael repeated. Like the word tasted bad.

“Correct,” Alpha Varn said. He was here too. Watching. “Beginning with today.”

The exercise was simple. Painful.

We had to fight each other.

“Bonded wolves can’t hurt each other,” Alpha Darius explained. “If the Bond is real, it will stop you. If it’s not, one of you will break.”

Kael’s eyes flicked to me. For half a second.

Cold. Empty.

“Begin.”

He came at me.

We’d fought before. In the academy. In the forest.

This was different.

This was careful.

He pulled every punch.

I did too.

Our fists stopped an inch from skin. Over and over.

The Bond buzzed between us, pushing us apart, pulling us together.

It was humiliating.

“Pathetic,” Alpha Varn muttered. “They can’t even fight properly.”

“Because they’re bonded,” Lyra said from the sidelines. “You’re asking water not to be wet.”

“Then we drown it,” Alpha Darius said.

The session ended with both of us bleeding from the effort of NOT hitting.

Kael walked off without a word.

I did the same.

Cold war. Official.

---

*CLASSES*

It got worse in class.

Magic theory. Weapons. History.

We sat on opposite sides of the room.

With guards in the corners.

But the Bond didn’t care about seating charts.

When the instructor wrote on the board, I felt Kael’s boredom.

When he got a question wrong, I felt his frustration like it was mine.

When someone brushed past him in the hall, I felt the flicker of his wolf, ready to snap.

He felt me too. I could tell.

He kept rubbing his wrist. Where the scar was.

At lunch, we sat at separate tables.

Me with Lyra and two North Ridge betas.

Him with Blackthorn guards who didn’t talk.

Rikka — the beta’s daughter — sat near me. Staring.

“You kissed him,” she whispered when the guards weren’t listening. “Everyone saw.”

I didn’t answer.

“Traitor,” she said softly. Then louder: “Traitor!”

The room went silent.

Kael stood. Fast. “Shut up.”

“Sit down, Varn,” one of the guards said.

He did. But his knuckles were white.

The Bond was screaming.

_Protect her. Go to her._

I stared at my food instead.

---

*NIGHT 1 APART*

It was torture.

The Bond was used to us being close. Now with walls and guards and hate between us, it stretched.

I felt him tossing in bed across the hall.

I felt the phantom ache in his shoulder where the scar was.

I felt him dreaming.

Of me.

I woke up at 3am with his name on my lips.

Across the hall, he did the same.

“Elsa.”

Just once. Barely audible.

I didn’t answer.

Denial. That’s what this was.

We were pretending the kiss didn’t happen.

Pretending the Bond didn’t matter.

Pretending we weren’t falling.

---

*DAY 3: THE CRACK*

By day three, we were both fraying.

Training was worse. They made us spar with other people now.

Me with a North Ridge wolf twice my size.

Kael with a Blackthorn captain.

I was losing. Bad.

The wolf was fast. He caught me, threw me.

Pain shot through my ribs.

Before I hit the ground, arms caught me.

Kael.

He’d crossed the yard in 2 seconds. Dropped his opponent.

“Don’t touch her,” he snarled at the other wolf.

The yard froze.

Alpha Darius looked furious.

Alpha Varn looked smug.

“Back to your side, Varn,” Alpha Darius said.

Kael let me go like I burned him. Walked back to his line.

But his hands were shaking.

That night, the Bond snapped.

Not broke. Snapped taut.

I was in my room when pain hit me like a truck.

Kael.

Nightmare.

He was 9 years old. Watching his father burn a village.

North Ridge.

My people.

He was crying. In the dream.

And in real life.

I was out of bed before I knew it. At the door.

“Open it.”

“Orders are—”

“OPEN IT!”

The guard did.

Kael was in the hall. Same thing. Pale. Sweating.

His guards were holding him back.

Our eyes met.

Denial shattered.

He crossed the hall in 3 steps and pulled me into him.

No kiss. No words.

Just holding. Desperate. Like if he let go we’d both fall apart.

The Bond sighed. Relief.

The guards didn’t stop us. Neither did the Alphas, who were watching from the end of the hall.

For 60 seconds, the cold war was over.

Then Kael pushed me back.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t make me do this.”

“Then don’t,” I whispered back.

He left.

---

*DAY 5: LUCA*

That’s when Luca arrived.

Right on schedule.

“To check on my fiancée,” he said, smiling at my father.

Wearing Blackthorn colors.

Looking at me like I was property.

Kael saw him from across the dining hall and stood so fast his chair fell.

The Bond went feral.

Red light. Growling.

Kael was across the room before anyone could move.

“Get away from her.”

Luca raised his hands. “Whoa. Just saying hi.”

“You’re not her fiancé anymore,” Kael said. Low. Dangerous.

Luca laughed. “Aren’t I? Last I checked, Alpha Darius and my father had a deal.”

Alpha Darius didn’t correct him.

I stood. “There is no deal.”

“There is,” Luca said. “Unless you want to start a war, Elsa.”

The Bond was pulling me toward Kael.

And toward running.

And toward screaming.

I chose none of them.

I walked out.

Kael followed.

Guards followed.

We ended up on the roof. No one else.

For 10 minutes we didn’t talk.

Then: “You can’t marry him,” Kael said.

“I’m not.”

“Good.”

More silence.

“The Bond is getting worse,” he admitted. “When you’re mad, I’m mad. When you’re sad—”

“I know.”

He looked at me. Really looked.

“I don’t want this.”

“Neither do I.”

“Liar.”

“Don’t.”

He stepped closer. “Elsa—”

Footsteps. Guards.

We jumped apart.

Cold war back on.

---

*NIGHT 6: THE FALL*

I broke on night six.

It wasn’t the Bond. It wasn’t the guards.

It was a letter.

From my father to Alpha Varn.

I wasn’t supposed to see it. Lyra left it on the table.

_“The girl is compromised. The Bond cannot be broken.

We have two options:

1. Kill the boy.

2. Let her claim him and exile them both.

I vote option 1.

- Darius”_

My hands shook.

Kill Kael.

That was the plan.

I ran.

Not to Kael.

To the Hollow.

Alone.

The Bond was screaming the whole way.

_No no._

I got to the clearing.

Empty.

Except for Corin.

He was sitting on the round table, carving something into the wood.

“Took you long enough,” he said without looking up.

“How did you—”

“I’m in the Bond too, remember? I feel when it’s hurting.”

He held up the carving.

Two names.

Elsa + Kael.

Inside a circle.

“The Third choice,” Corin said. “Not break. Not claim. Run.”

I shook my head. “They’ll kill him.”

“They’ll try,” Corin said. “Unless you’re gone before dawn.”

He tossed me a pack. Food. Clothes. A map.

“Blackthorn border. Midnight. He’ll be there.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I told him to be.”

The Bond pulled. Hard.

Toward Kael.

Toward running.

I looked at Corin. “Why are you helping us?”

“Because 200 years ago, someone should’ve helped me and Lyra.”

He stood. “Choose, Elsa. Stay and watch them kill each other.

Or fall.”

The wind picked up.

From the trees, I heard footsteps.

Guards. My father’s guards.

Corin vanished into the dark.

Leaving me with the pack. And the choice.

Run with Kael.

Or stay and let my father kill him.

I grabbed the pack.

And I ran.

The Bond sang.

But behind me, a wolf howled.

Not mine.

Not Kael’s.

Hunting.

_TO BE CONTINUED..._