Bargain in chained
1344 Words
The wind stilled the moment he stepped into the moonlight.
Kaelani froze.
Draven Kaelmoor’s presence bled across the grove like a stormcloud rolling over calm waters. Tall, broad-shouldered, and draped in black leather and wolf-hide, he didn’t move with grace—he moved with dominance. Every step he took toward her thudded against the earth, like the land itself bowed beneath him.
She hated that her breath caught.
His eyes—storm-gray, just as she remembered—locked on hers. They didn’t flicker with curiosity or compassion. No warmth. Only calculation. As if he were already weighing her worth and finding her lacking.
"You're late," Verena said without turning.
“I came,” Draven replied, voice smooth as shattered ice.
Kaelani swallowed hard, standing her ground even as her knees begged to buckle.
“So,” he murmured, circling her like a predator, “this is the girl they want to shackle me to.”
“I’m not a girl,” Kaelani snapped. “And no one wants this.”
His gaze settled on her fully now. And she felt it—like a hand closing slowly around her throat. “You don’t speak like someone who understands what’s at stake.”
“I understand betrayal,” she said bitterly. “I’ve just been condemned for it.”
Draven didn’t smile, but something cruel flickered in his eyes.
“She’s fire,” he said to Verena, voice tinged with amusement. “Too wild. You expect this to end in anything but ruin?”
“No,” Verena said quietly. “We expect ruin. But sometimes ruin is required to fulfill a prophecy.”
Kaelani’s fists clenched. “You keep speaking of this prophecy—but no one tells me what it says.”
Verena turned to her. “Because the stars don’t answer to you. They only warn.”
Draven scoffed. “If this is my punishment for loyalty, then the Council is more desperate than I thought.”
“This is not punishment,” Verena said. “It is protection.”
“For who?” Kaelani snapped. “Because it sure as hell isn’t for me.”
For a beat, silence.
Then Draven stepped closer—too close.
His voice dropped low, intimate. “You can fight me. You can hate me. But I’ll tell you one thing, Kaelani Thorne. Once we’re bound, you belong to me in the eyes of the Council, the packs… and the gods.”
Her jaw trembled, but she didn’t let it fall.
“I will never belong to anyone.”
He stared at her a long moment.
Then something shifted behind his eyes. A flicker. A thought.
And to everyone’s surprise—including Verena’s—Draven spoke.
“Unless…”
Kaelani blinked. “Unless what?”
“I’ll take the binding,” he said, addressing the Elders, “but on my terms.”
The robed figures stiffened. Verena’s brow creased. “You cannot rewrite the pact.”
“I’m not rewriting,” Draven said coolly. “I’m making an offer. She wears my mark—but she stays in my territory. My rules. She doesn’t touch my throne, my wolves, or my name unless I say so. A mate in title only.”
“A contract marriage,” Verena murmured.
Kaelani’s heart plummeted.
“You’d chain me to your side just to ignore me?”
“I’d chain you,” he said, “to keep others from doing worse.”
The words landed like a slap.
She looked at Verena. “You’re letting him dictate my sentence now?”
The priestess’s voice was soft. “The gods chose him, Kaelani. Not me.”
A tremor ran through her. So this was it. Not a marriage. Not even a bond. Just a prison without bars—with her captor wrapped in skin and shadows.
She met Draven’s eyes again.
“Fine,” she said coldly. “Marry me. Leash me. But don’t think for one second you’ve broken me.”
His lips curved slightly—almost a smile.
“Darling,” he murmured, “I haven’t even started.”
---
Cliffhanger Ending:
A howl split the night air—low, long, and mournful.
Draven’s head snapped toward the forest.
Verena paled. “They’ve found her.”
Kaelani’s blood ran cold. “Who?”
The priestess’s voice shook.
“Cassia Holloway… your sister. The one they said died ten years ago.”
A howl split the night air—low, long, and laced with mourning.
Kaelani stiffened.
Draven’s head turned sharply toward the forest. His hand had already gone to the dagger strapped beneath his coat, though no order had yet been given. His eyes narrowed—not with fear, but instinct.
“What was that?” Kaelani asked, though her body already knew.
Priestess Verena’s lips parted, and for the first time that night, something slipped into her voice.
Dread.
“They’ve found her,” she whispered.
Kaelani turned to her sharply. “Who?”
A gust of wind swept through the trees like a warning.
Verena’s eyes shimmered under the moonlight. “Cassia Holloway.”
Silence. A stillness that gnawed at the edges of her sanity.
Kaelani’s breath hitched. “No. That’s not possible. Cassia died ten years ago. The Council confirmed it. She—”
“She disappeared,” Verena corrected. “No body was ever recovered. And now…”
Another howl rang out—closer this time. Wild. Furious.
“She’s back,” Verena whispered. “But she’s not the girl who vanished. She’s rogue-born now. Changed.”
Kaelani felt the ground lurch beneath her feet. A thousand memories tore through her mind—Cassia’s laughter, her scent, the way she used to braid Kaelani’s hair with trembling fingers before council meetings. Her sister had been everything: protector, compass, her last piece of their mother.
And now…?
“Why didn’t anyone tell me she might be alive?” Kaelani whispered, her voice cracking.
Draven spoke before Verena could.
“Because if she’s rogue, she’s no longer your sister. She’s a threat.”
Kaelani turned on him, rage flickering to life like lightning behind her eyes. “You don’t get to decide that. You don’t get to speak her name as if it’s poison.”
“She disappeared during a blood hunt,” he said evenly. “She’s either being used, or she’s become what we were hunting.”
Kaelani flinched. “You think she’s feral?”
“She wouldn’t be the first Holloway to fall,” he said, gaze pointed.
Kaelani’s palm connected with his cheek before she even realized she’d moved. The slap echoed through the grove.
Gasps erupted.
Draven’s face barely shifted. He turned back slowly, the imprint of her fingers blooming faintly red against his pale skin.
No fury. No rebuke.
Just… interest.
“You’ve got bite,” he murmured. “I wonder if it’ll last.”
Kaelani’s breath came hard and shallow, and every part of her screamed to run—to scream—to break.
But she didn’t.
She stood tall. For Cassia. For herself. For whatever twisted fate the gods had scripted.
“We’ll find her,” she said, voice steel. “Before you or your wolves do.”
Draven’s expression sharpened. “You think you’ll get to her first?”
“I have to,” Kaelani said. “Because if what you’re saying is true… she’s not just rogue. She’s proof the Council lied.”
Verena’s gaze darkened. “Tread carefully, Kaelani. Some truths were buried for good reason.”
Kaelani stepped back, the fire in her eyes blazing now. “Then maybe it’s time they were dug up.”
---
Cliffhanger Ending:
From the shadows at the edge of the grove, a figure stepped forward.
Her cloak was torn. Her feet were bare. Her eyes glowed with an eerie amber that no Holloway had ever possessed.
Kaelani’s heart stuttered. “Cassia?”
The figure blinked—slow and haunting.
Then she smiled.
But it wasn’t the smile of a sister.
It was the smile of a wolf.
- Writer
