A Bond That Refuses to Stay Quiet
2016 Words
Selene woke with the taste of copper on her tongue and the ghost of a scream still lodged in her throat.
The first thing she noticed was the throbbing in her palm. She lifted her hand, half-expecting to see the claw marks still raw and bleeding—but the wounds had already begun to heal, three faint pink lines where the gashes had been. The blood had dried on her sheets, rust-colored and accusing.
She stared at them, her mind still hazy from the dream. The woman in silver. The field of moonlit grass. The words that echoed even now, impossible and terrifying.
You were always meant to be queen.
Selene pressed her fingers into her temples and forced herself to breathe. In. Out. In. Out.
The second thing she noticed was the silence.
Her wolf was gone.
Not absent in the way she'd been during the day—quiet and obedient and waiting—but truly, deeply gone. The space inside her chest where her wolf had always lived felt hollow. Empty. Like someone had reached inside her and scooped out something vital.
Selene had never been without her wolf. Even at her lowest moments, when she'd felt invisible and worthless, her wolf had been there. A quiet presence. A steady hum beneath her skin. The one constant in a life that had given her nothing but uncertainty.
Now there was nothing.
She pushed herself upright, her body aching with exhaustion she couldn't explain. Every muscle felt heavy. Her head pounded. Her wrist—the one Damon had grabbed—throbbed with a dull, persistent ache.
Selene looked at it.
The skin was unmarked. No bruises. No fingerprints. No evidence that the future Alpha had touched her at all. But she could still feel the ghost of his grip, warm and desperate and impossible.
Mate.
She squeezed her eyes shut. That word. That impossible, insane word.
"You're not," she whispered, her voice rough with sleep. "You're not his mate. He doesn't even know you exist."
But even as she said it, she knew it wasn't true. Damon Voss knew she existed now. He'd grabbed her wrist in front of the entire pack. He'd looked at her like she was the only person in the world. He'd said her name like it cost him something.
And her wolf had surged.
He knows, that impossible voice whispered. He felt it too.
Selene shook her head and forced herself to stand. Her legs wobbled beneath her. She gripped the edge of her cot, steadying herself, and tried to remember the last time she'd felt this exhausted.
She couldn't.
---
The Omega dining area was small and cramped—a narrow table wedged into the corner of the quarters, wooden benches that had seen better centuries, the smell of porridge and weak tea. Selene sat at the far end, as she always did, her bowl untouched in front of her.
She couldn't eat. Her stomach churned with a strange, restless energy that made her want to pace. Or run. Or find Damon Voss and demand to know what had happened between them.
Stop it, she told herself firmly. You're an Omega. He's the future Alpha. Whatever you felt—whatever your wolf felt—it was a mistake. A fluke. Nothing more.
But she didn't believe it.
She could still feel him. Even now, surrounded by the low murmur of Omegas eating their breakfast, she could feel him. A pull. A thread of warmth somewhere deep inside her chest, tugging her toward someone she couldn't forget.
Selene pushed her bowl away and pressed her palm against her sternum, trying to quiet the restless ache. It didn't work. The pull grew stronger, more insistent, until she had to grip the edge of the table just to keep herself from standing.
She needed air.
She rose, ignoring the curious glances from the other Omegas, and made her way toward the doorway that led to the main hall. She didn't have a destination in mind—she just needed to move, to escape the suffocating weight of her own thoughts.
But when she reached the threshold, she stopped.
Damon Voss was in the main hall.
He sat at the Alpha table, surrounded by his Beta, the Elders, and Lilith Vance. The future Alpha looked every inch the leader he was born to be—composed, controlled, untouchable.
But his eyes kept drifting toward the doorway. Toward her.
Selene's breath caught. She should have turned away. She should have retreated to the Omega quarters and pretended she hadn't seen anything.
Instead, she stood frozen, watching him watch her.
His grey eyes were dark with something she couldn't name. Something that looked almost like desperation. His hands were clenched around his bowl, his knuckles white, his jaw tight.
He's fighting it too.
The thought came unbidden, impossible and terrifying. But Selene couldn't shake it. She could see it in the tension of his shoulders, the way his gaze kept returning to her, like she was a compass needle, and he was lost.
"Alpha?"
Lilith's voice cut through the silence like a blade. Selene watched her lean closer to Damon, her hand brushing his arm with practiced ease.
"You seem distracted," Lilith said lightly. "Everything alright?"
Damon blinked. The mask slid back into place—the composed, controlled future Alpha, untouchable and untroubled. Selene watched it happen, watched the walls go up, watched the desperation disappear behind a carefully neutral expression.
"Fine," he said. "Just thinking about the ceremony."
Lilith's smile widened. "Of course. It's only a few weeks away. There's so much to prepare."
Selene's heart dropped.
The ceremony.
She'd known it was coming. Everyone in the pack knew—the Alpha's Ascension Ceremony was one of the most important events in a pack's history. The future Alpha would be officially confirmed, his position secured, his power sanctioned by the Moon Goddess herself.
But she hadn't thought about what it meant. What it would mean for Damon. What it would mean for her.
"We'll need to make sure everything's in order," an elder said from further down the Alpha table. "The Council's representatives will arrive soon, and we need to make sure nothing—and no one—distracts him."
Selene felt those words like a physical blow.
Distracts him.
She watched Damon's jaw tighten. Watched his hands clench around his bowl. Watched his eyes flicker toward her one more time, desperate and trapped and completely impossible.
And then she did what she should have done from the beginning.
She turned and walked away.
---
Damon couldn't stop looking at the doorway.
Even now, with Lilith beside him and the Elders discussing ceremony preparations, his eyes kept drifting to the entrance to the Omega quarters. Selene had been standing there. Watching him. Feeling whatever impossible pull was between them.
And then she'd walked away.
Good, he told himself. That's good. She's staying away. That's what's best. That's what's safe.
But his wolf howled in protest.
She's ours. She's OUR MATE. Why are you letting her walk away?
Damon's hands tightened around his bowl. He forced himself to look at Lilith, to smile when she said something about the decorations, to nod when an elder asked about the guest list.
But inside, he was falling apart.
Because he'd almost reached Selene this morning. Three steps. That was all it would have taken. Three steps, and he could have been standing beside her, could have spoken to her, could have—
What? A voice in his head demanded. What would you have said? "I can't stop thinking about you"? "I can't stop feeling you." "You're my mate and I want to claim you and I don't care who knows it."
He couldn't say any of that. He couldn't say it because it wasn't true—or rather, it was too true, too terrifyingly real, too much like a confession he wasn't ready to make.
Because if he said it out loud, he'd have to face what it meant.
And he wasn't sure he was strong enough for that.
"She's gone now," Lilith said suddenly.
Damon blinked. "What?"
Lilith smiled sweetly at him, her eyes gleaming with something he couldn't quite identify. "The Omega. Selene. She's not at the doorway anymore."
Damon's stomach dropped. He forced himself to keep his expression neutral, to pretend her words hadn't sent a jolt of panic through his chest.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said flatly.
Lilith laughed. A soft, musical sound—the kind that was supposed to be charming. But something cold settled in Damon's chest at the sound.
"Of course you don't," she said. "You've been staring at that doorway all morning."
Damon's jaw tightened. "I haven't been staring at anything."
Lilith tilted her head, her expression suddenly serious. "Damon. You've been distracted for weeks. Everyone's noticed. And now you're watching the Omega quarters as they hold the secrets to the universe." She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a murmur. "What's going on?"
What's going on? Damon wanted to laugh. What's going on is that I touched her and my wolf went insane. What's going on is that I can't stop thinking about her. What's going on is that I'm terrified of what my father will do if he ever finds out.
But he couldn't say any of that.
So he did what he always did when the truth was too dangerous to speak.
He lied.
"Nothing's going on," he said. "I'm just tired. The ceremony's in a few weeks, and the preparations have been... a lot."
Lilith studied him for a long moment. Then she smiled again, warm and understanding and utterly convincing.
"Of course," she said. "I understand. Just... be careful, Damon. People talk. And rumors can be dangerous."
Damon nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
But as Lilith turned back to her breakfast, he felt his eyes drift toward the Omega quarters one more time.
Selene was gone.
And something inside him ached at the absence.
---
Selene pressed her back against the cold stone wall of the Omega quarters and tried to breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
It didn't help.
She could still feel the pull—the impossible, terrifying pull that kept dragging her toward Damon Voss like she was a moth and he was a flame. She could still see the desperation in his eyes, the way he'd looked at her like she was the only person in existence.
Distracts him.
The elder's words echoed through her skull, cold and final.
We need to make sure nothing—and no one—distracts him.
Selene closed her eyes and pressed her palms against the wall, feeling the rough stone bite into her skin. She was an Omega. The lowest rank in the pack. The kind of wolf who fetched supplies and cleaned wounds and never, ever caught the attention of anyone important.
And Damon Voss was the future Alpha.
Whatever she'd felt—whatever her wolf had felt—it didn't matter. Damon belonged to Lilith. He'd always belonged to Lilith. And no amount of desperate wrist-grabbing or intense eye contact could change that.
Selene pushed off the wall and forced herself to walk back toward the Omega dining area. She'd finish her breakfast. She'd go about her duties. She'd pretend nothing had happened.
She was halfway across the room when she heard the voices.
"The ceremony is only three weeks away." An elder's voice, low and deliberate. "We need to make sure nothing interferes."
Selene froze.
"Three weeks," another voice confirmed. "The Alpha knows his duty. He'll choose Lilith. He'll do what's right for the pack."
Selene's heart slammed against her ribs.
Three weeks.
She pressed her hand against her chest, trying to slow the frantic beating. Three weeks until the ceremony. Three weeks until Damon's position was secured. Three weeks until everything was final and permanent and utterly unchangeable.
Selene had the terrible, terrifying suspicion that whatever was happening between her and Damon—whatever this impossible pull was—it was running out of time.
- Writer
