CHAPTER FOUR- A heart That Betrays Itself
1386 Words
Hunter didn’t remember how he made it back to the guest chamber.
He remembered the Mirror’s visions.
He remembered Aric’s voice—too calm, too steady, too certain.
He remembered his own heartbeat pounding like a drum inside a cage too small.
But the walk back?
Gone.
He slammed the chamber door shut behind him.
The room was too warm. Too bright. Too quiet.
Stone walls closed in around him like a fist.
Hunter pressed both palms against the door and sucked in breath after shaky breath.
“No… no, no, no,” he whispered. “This can’t be real.”
But the bond pulsed in his chest—
warm, alive, undeniable.
Not painful.
Worse.
Comforting.
Hunter shoved himself away from the door like it had burned him.
He couldn’t want the presence of the man he came to kill.
He couldn’t want him.
Not Aric.
Not the Alpha who slaughtered rogues, who ruled with cold authority, who looked at him like he wasn’t a stranger at all.
Hunter ran a hand through his hair and paced the room, anger building like a storm.
“This is manipulation,” he hissed. “Magic. A stupid curse. Not real.”
But when he pressed a hand over his heart, the bond responded with a soft, steady thrum.
Aric’s calm.
Aric’s nearness.
Aric’s—
“Stop,” Hunter growled.
He grabbed a cup from the bedside table and hurled it across the room. It shattered against the stone in a burst of sharp, glittering fragments.
The sound should have satisfied him.
It didn’t.
It only made the silence louder.
A Knock At His Door
Hunter stiffened.
Another knock. A slow, deliberate one.
Of course it would be him.
“Hunter,” Aric’s voice rumbled through the wood, low and deep. “Open the door.”
“No.”
“It wasn’t a question.”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “Everything with you is a command.”
“Only when necessary.”
“Then this isn’t necessary.”
A long pause.
Then—
“I can feel your anger from here.”
Hunter’s pulse jumped.
The bond.
Of course Aric could feel it.
It connected emotion, instinct—everything wolves weren’t supposed to share unless mated.
“I’m not opening that door,” Hunter snapped. “The bond doesn’t suddenly mean I want to have a conversation.”
Another beat of silence.
Then Aric said, “The bond activates when emotions spike. If you keep letting it spiral, it could trigger instinct.”
Hunter froze. “Instinct?”
Aric sighed—soft, irritated, the kind of sound he’d only heard from someone trying too hard to stay gentle.
“Hunter. Open the door before your instincts override your choices.”
Hunter’s heart hammered.
Override?
Like what—
panic?
rage?
submission?
No.
No.
He marched to the door, yanked it open, and glared up at the giant who filled the doorway.
Aric didn’t look smug.
Or victorious.
Or controlling.
He looked… worried.
Which only pissed Hunter off more.
“What do you want?” Hunter growled.
“You’re overwhelmed,” Aric said simply.
“Brilliant observation.”
“And you’re scared.”
Hunter stepped back like he’d been slapped. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like you know me.”
Aric’s jaw tightened. “I don’t need to know you to feel what you feel.”
“That’s worse!”
Aric let out a slow, steadying breath. “Hunter… the bond works both ways. It’s not only your emotions I feel.”
Hunter stared at him.
“You feel mine too,” Aric said quietly.
Hunter swallowed.
“And what do you feel right now?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Aric met his eyes—silver on brown.
Calm.
Real.
Unarmored.
“Concern,” he said.
“Restraint.”
A pause.
“And something I shouldn’t feel this soon.”
Hunter’s heartbeat stuttered.
He looked away fast.
“I didn’t ask to be bound to you,” Hunter muttered.
“I didn’t ask for this either,” Aric replied. “But fate didn’t care.”
Hunter’s throat tightened. “Don’t say that word.”
“Why?”
“Because fate always takes more than it gives.”
Aric’s expression flickered with something Hunter didn’t recognize.
Pain.
Real, raw pain.
“Hunter,” he said softly, “what happened to you before your father died?”
Hunter’s stomach twisted sharply. “Don’t.”
“It matters.”
“No,” Hunter snapped. “What matters is that you were supposed to die by my hand. That’s why I came here. Remember?”
Aric didn’t flinch. “Do you still want to kill me?”
Hunter opened his mouth—
ready to say yes, ready to lie, ready to grab whatever dignity he had left—
But the bond pulsed.
Hard.
Honest.
A mirror of his true emotions.
Hunter clenched his teeth and looked away, voice brittle.
“I don’t know.”
Aric stepped closer.
Too close.
Hunter’s back hit the wall.
Aric’s shadow fell over him, and Hunter’s breath hitched involuntarily.
Aric noticed. Of course he noticed. The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, but not in anger—in focus.
He lifted a hand slowly, giving Hunter every chance to stop him.
Hunter didn’t move.
Aric brushed his fingertips along Hunter’s jaw.
Hunter bit back a gasp as something electric shot through him—the bond flaring heat beneath his skin.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Aric murmured.
Hunter’s eyes squeezed shut. “Then why does being near you feel like a trap?”
Aric’s fingertips stilled.
His voice deepened.
“Because you’re fighting instinct with reason. And instinct always wins.”
Hunter’s breath trembled. “I’m not yours.”
“No,” Aric said quietly. “You’re your own. But the bond ties our fates whether you want it or not.”
Hunter opened his eyes—
and instantly regretted it.
Aric wasn’t looking at him like prey or enemy.
He was looking at him like—
Like he mattered.
Hunter shoved Aric’s hand away, chest tight.
“Stop touching me.”
Aric nodded once, stepping back. Not angry. Not offended.
Respecting it.
Which somehow felt worse.
“I came to ask you something,” Aric said.
Hunter scoffed. “What now?”
“There’s a mark on your shoulder.”
Hunter froze.
“No there isn’t.”
Aric’s eyes softened. “Hunter. I saw it the day you arrived.”
Hunter’s heartbeat faltered.
“That mark,” Aric continued, “is the same one I saw in the Mirror today. It ties you to the prophecy… and to me.”
Hunter swallowed hard. “If that’s true, then you’ve known all along.”
“I suspected,” Aric admitted.
Hunter’s voice cracked. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“You weren’t ready.”
“Ready?” Hunter stepped forward, furious. “You let me walk into this blind—bonded, cursed, dragged into your world—and you think I wasn’t ready?”
Aric held his gaze with steady calm.
“You’re still not ready.”
Hunter almost swung at him. Almost.
But the bond stopped him—
a wave of instinct urging protection instead of violence.
Aric felt it too.
His eyes darkened.
“Hitting me would only hurt you,” Aric murmured. “The bond won’t let you harm what it sees as—”
“Finish that sentence and I swear I’ll drown myself in the Mirror,” Hunter snapped.
Aric’s lips twitched—almost a smile. “As you wish.”
Hunter glared, breath shaking.
“What do you want from me?”
Aric exhaled slowly.
“Tonight,” he said, “I want you safe.”
Hunter blinked.
“…what?”
“The curse has awakened,” Aric murmured. “It knows you’re bound. It knows you’re exposed. And it will come for you.”
Hunter’s blood ran cold.
“What will come?” he whispered.
Aric stepped closer—not touching, not forcing, just close enough for Hunter to feel the warmth of him.
“Whatever killed your family.”
Hunter felt the floor drop from beneath him.
Aric’s voice lowered to a dangerous whisper.
“And it is already on its way.”
- Writer
