*FERAL: claimed by my rival*

*damage control*

*CHAPTER 9: DAMAGE CONTROL*

The light faded.

Silence.

Then chaos.

“ELSA!”

My father’s voice cracked like a whip. *Alpha Darius.* Blood still on his neck from Corin’s knife. His gray eyes were wild, scanning me from head to toe like he was checking for injuries.

“KAEL!”

Alpha Varn’s roar shook the Mirror Chamber. He crossed the room in 3 steps and grabbed Kael’s arm, yanking him away from me.

The Bond snapped.

I gasped. It felt like someone ripped a hook out of my chest. Kael staggered too, his face going white.

“Don’t touch her,” Alpha Varn snarled. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at our wrists.

The crescents. Both dark. Almost black now.

“Explain,” Alpha Darius said. His voice was low. Deadly calm. The kind of calm that came before a storm. “Now.”

Pack members were still on their knees. Thorne had his head down. Lyra was holding my father’s arm. Ash was nowhere. He’d vanished in the light.

I opened my mouth. “Dad, it’s not—”

“Not what?” Alpha Darius cut me off. He stepped closer. His eyes flicked to the carved words on the table.

_Come to the Hollow at dawn. Alone. Or the Bond breaks and he dies._

His jaw ticked. “Is that true? Will he die?”

The Bond pulsed. Faint. Weak. Like it was bleeding out.

_Yes._

I couldn’t lie. Not with the Bond between us. He’d feel it.

“Yes,” I whispered.

Alpha Varn swore. “You let this happen? You bonded with a North Ridge dog?”

Kael jerked against his grip. “Don’t call her that.”

“Then what should I call her?” Alpha Varn shook him. “Your mate? Your enemy? Which is it, son?”

Kael didn’t answer. Because he didn’t know.

Alpha Darius looked at me. Really looked. And for the first time in my life, I saw disappointment in his face. Not anger. Worse.

“Upstairs. Now,” he said. “Both of you. Separate rooms. Guards on both doors.”

“What?” I stepped forward. The Bond yanked, weak but desperate. “Dad, we can’t be apart. The Bond—”

“I KNOW WHAT THE BOND DOES!” he roared. The chamber shook. “I also know what it does to our people. To our war. You think I didn’t see the light? You think I didn’t see you two claiming?”

We weren’t claiming. Not fully. But we’d started.

Alpha Varn dragged Kael toward the door. “She’s coming with me. To Blackthorn. We’ll break it there.”

“No!” The word tore out of me. “You can’t break it. Corin said—”

“Corin,” Alpha Darius repeated. His eyes narrowed. “The Third. The one we buried.”

So he knew. They all knew.

“He’s alive,” I said. “And he has a plan. And if we don’t—”

“If we don’t what?” Alpha Darius grabbed my shoulders. Not rough. Desperate. “If we don’t let you throw away 200 years of blood for a boy? Elsa, look at me.”

I did.

“Do you love him?”

The Bond answered before I could. It screamed _yes_ in my chest.

I hated it.

Alpha Darius closed his eyes. “Guards. Take her.”

Two North Ridge wolves grabbed my arms. Not hard. But firm.

“Take him,” Alpha Varn ordered.

Kael didn’t fight. He just looked at me over his father’s shoulder.

_I’m sorry._

Then they were gone.

---

*THE SEPARATION*

My room at North Ridge wasn’t a room. It was a cell.

Stone walls. One window with bars. One bed. One guard outside the door 24/7.

“House arrest,” Lyra told me through the door. She wasn’t allowed in. “Until we figure out how to break the Bond without killing you.”

“How long?” I asked.

“As long as it takes.”

The first night was hell.

Without Kael, the Bond was a wound. It throbbed. It ached. It whispered his name.

I didn’t sleep. I paced. I tried to reach for him through the Bond and hit a wall.

His father had blocked it.

The second night was worse.

A letter came. Sealed with Alpha Varn’s crest.

_“To Alpha Darius,

Your daughter is a liability. The Bond must be broken. We have a ritual. Silver and fire. She lives. He lives. The war continues.

Send her at dawn.

- Ronan Varn”_

My father crumpled it. I saw from the doorway.

“Over my dead body,” he muttered.

The third night, I broke.

I was sitting on the floor, head in my hands, when the Bond suddenly flared.

Not pain. Fear.

_Kael._

I shot to my feet. “Kael?”

Nothing. Just static.

Then an image. Flash.

Kael. In a room. Chained. Silver around his wrists.

Ronan standing over him.

“You have 2 choices,” Ronan said. “Kill her, or watch us kill her for you.”

The image cut.

I screamed. Pounded on the door. “LET ME OUT! THEY’RE HURTING HIM!”

The guard didn’t open it.

“Alpha’s orders,” he said. “No contact.”

I slid down the door. Crying. The Bond was screaming now. Not words. Just _hurt hurt_.

That’s when I heard it.

A scratching at my window.

I looked up.

Ash.

The boy from the tunnel. 12 years old. Climbing the wall like a spider.

He tapped the glass. Mouthed: _Let me in._

I did.

He dropped to the floor. Breathing hard. “We don’t have long,” he whispered. “Corin sent me.”

“Where’s Kael?”

“Alive. For now. But Ronan’s ritual is at dawn. 3 hours.” Ash pulled something out. The black feather from the chamber. “Corin says you have to go to the Hollow. Alone. Or the Bond breaks and Kael dies.”

“That’s what the message said.”

“Yeah. But it’s a trap.” Ash’s gold eyes were serious. “Corin’s plan isn’t to save Kael. It’s to make you choose him over both packs.”

I stared at him. “Then why go?”

“Because if you don’t, Kael dies anyway.”

The Bond pulsed. Agreement.

I stood. “How do we get out?”

Ash grinned. “The same way I got in.”

---

*THE ESCAPE*

We didn’t go out the door.

We went down.

There were tunnels under North Ridge. Old ones. Lyra showed me maps once.

Ash knew them.

“Where are the guards?” I whispered as we crawled.

“Drunk,” Ash said. “Your dad’s been drinking since they took Kael. He thinks he failed you.”

That hurt.

The tunnel came out in the woods. Half a mile from the Hollow.

Dawn was coming. The sky was gray.

My wrist burned. The crescent was almost black.

“Go,” Ash said. “I’ll create a distraction. Make them think you went east.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“Because Corin told me to,” Ash said simply. “And because I don’t want to see you die.”

He ran off into the trees.

I ran toward the Hollow.

Alone.

Just like the message said.

---

*THE HOLLOW*

It was a clearing. Dead trees. No grass.

And in the center: Corin.

Not the boy from the mirrors. The man. Tired. Older.

And with him: Kael.

Chained. Kneeling. Silver around his wrists and neck.

Ronan stood behind him. Knife at Kael’s throat.

“Took you long enough,” Corin said.

“Let him go,” I said.

Ronan smiled. “That depends.”

Alpha Darius and Alpha Varn stepped out of the trees at the same time. Both had weapons. Both looked ready to kill.

“You walked right into it,” Alpha Darius said. “Both of you.”

Corin sighed. “I was hoping we could do this without the fathers.”

“What do you want?” Alpha Varn demanded.

“The Bond,” Corin said. “Finished. Claimed. Or broken.”

He looked at me. Then Kael.

“You have 60 seconds. Choose.”

Kael lifted his head. His face was bruised. “Elsa, don’t—”

“Shut up,” Ronan pressed the knife. A drop of blood.

The Bond was screaming. _Choose choose choose._

Alpha Darius looked at me. “Elsa. Come here.”

Alpha Varn pulled Kael up. “Come with me, son. We’ll fix this.”

Corin held out his hand. “Or come with me. And end the war.”

Three choices.

60 seconds.

The sky lightened.

Dawn.

My wrist was on fire.

Kael’s eyes met mine.

And I made my choice.

I ran.

Not to my father.

Not to Corin.

To Kael.

I grabbed the knife at his throat.

And cut my palm.

Blood dripped onto the chains.

“Break,” I whispered. “Break for him.”

The silver sizzled.

Ronan roared.

And the world went black.

_TO BE CONTINUED..._