Blood Moon Union

Chapter Ten

Nia woke to screaming.

Not her own.

Kai’s.

She bolted upright, the sound tearing through the bond like a knife—raw, guttural, terrified. She was out of bed before she could think, bare feet slapping against cold hardwood as she threw open her door.

Kai’s room was across the hall.

She didn’t knock.

The sight inside froze her blood.

Kai thrashed on the bed, muscles locked in agony, his claws tearing gashes into the sheets. His eyes were wide open—gold, glowing, unseeing—as if trapped in a nightmare while awake.

“Kai!” She lunged forward, grabbing his shoulders.

Bad idea.

The moment she touched him, the vision hit her like a freight train.

—a forest drenched in blood, wolves with hollow eyes, a figure in the shadows laughing—

Nia gasped, recoiling, but the images didn’t stop. They flooded her mind through the bond, sharper, hungrier than before.

—her coven’s sigil carved into flesh, Kai’s fangs at her throat, betrayal, betrayal, BETRAYAL—

“No—stop—” She clutched her head, but the visions weren’t hers to control.

This was the attack.

Not claws or poison.

Their worst fears.

And it was using the bond against them.

Kai’s POV

He was drowning.

Every nightmare he’d ever had—every fear, every weakness—played on loop behind his eyes.

—Nia’s hands around his heart, squeezing—

—his pack turning to dust—

—his father’s voice: “You were never strong enough.”—

Then—pain.

White-hot and sudden.

The visions shattered.

Kai gasped, his body arching off the bed as reality crashed back in.

Nia knelt over him, her palm pressed to his chest, her magic burning through him like a live wire. Her eyes were wild, her breath ragged.

“It’s not real,” she snarled, her voice shaking. “None of it is real.”

Kai’s claws retracted, his lungs heaving. The bond between them pulsed, frantic, alive—not just with shared terror, but with something fiercer.

Her.

She’d pulled him out.

And now the enemy knew it.

The Aftermath

Dawn found them in the kitchen, clutching mugs of bitter tea neither of them drank.

Nia’s hands hadn’t stopped trembling.

Kai’s wolf hadn’t stopped pacing.

“It targeted the bond,” Nia said hoarsely. “Used our connection to amplify the attack.”

Kai’s grip tightened on his mug. “So we’re vulnerable together and apart.”

“No.” She met his gaze. “We’re stronger together. It just doesn’t want us to realize that.”

A beat of silence.

Then—

“We fight back,” Kai growled.

Nia’s smile was all teeth. “Oh, we do more than that.”

She reached into her pocket and slammed a fist-sized obsidian stone onto the table. It gleamed, etched with runes that made Kai’s wolf snarl in recognition.

Hunt. Track. Destroy.

“We find who’s doing this,” Nia whispered.

“And we end them.”