The Mark Between us
1215 Words
Chapter One: The Mark Between Us
Elara POV
They brought me to the altar in chains.
Not iron ones—those could be shattered with enough strength or rage. No, they bound me in silk laced with silver thread, so thin it glittered with every heartbeat, slicing my wrists in rhythm with the pulse of my unwilling blood. The pain was not meant to keep me in place. It was meant to humiliate. To remind everyone watching that I was the sacrifice, not the bride.
The stone hall was cold and cavernous, the walls lined with Blackfang warriors and the scent of pine sap, wet moss, and musk. Predator scents. I stood beneath their eyes like meat on display.
My father’s voice cracked through the silence like dry wood. “Elara of the Ravenmoon Clan. Do you consent to the binding?”
He didn't look at me. He couldn’t. His grip was locked on my mother’s jade pendant, the one he’d worn ever since she vanished during the last border raid. He swore he’d give it to me after the ceremony—if I survived it.
I tilted my chin toward the crescent moon etched in the dome above us. “Do I seem like someone with a choice?”
A low ripple of growls echoed from the Blackfang side. Behind me, my people stood tense, as if one more insult would ignite another war. A few Ravenmoon Betas glanced at my brother, silently begging for a signal. He gave none. His hands were fists at his side.
And then I saw him.
Kael Blackfang.
He stepped forward from the shadows of his warriors, the weight of the Alpha's bloodline in every deliberate stride. His presence was magnetic, violent, wrong. He moved like the storm that followed a forest fire—no mercy, just ruin.
He wore ceremonial black, the high collar of his tunic brushing the jagged scar across his brow. His eyes were molten amber, rimmed in gold, too sharp for someone barely older than me.
Kael smelled like steel in the rain.
He was supposed to be my mate.
And the thought of that—of him—made something cold settle deep in my spine.
Three nights ago, I’d begged my father to reconsider.
“They slaughtered our kin at Snowveil Pass,” I hissed. “You’d give me to butchers?”
His face was ash-pale in the candlelight. “I’d give anything to end the bloodshed, Elara. Even you.”
I could still feel the weight of those words. I think he meant them as a kindness.
I didn’t forgive him.
The priestess stepped forward, hands steady despite the tension crackling around us like lightning before a storm. She carried the marriage cord—three strands: one red, one black, one thorned and dipped in wolfsbane.
I didn’t flinch.
“Join hands,” she said.
Kael’s gaze dropped to the chains binding my wrists. I expected smugness. Triumph. Something cold.
But there was none of that.
His brow creased. Just barely. A flicker of discomfort. Almost… shame?
He hesitated before taking my hand.
And that hesitation—his tiny rebellion—gave me the smallest jolt of power.
“I thought Alpha heirs weren’t afraid of their brides,” I muttered under my breath.
Kael’s eyes snapped to mine, lightning caught in amber. “Only the ones who snarl like they bite.”
His fingers wrapped around mine.
And the world caught fire.
It was like being branded from the inside out. A searing heat bolted through my skin, down to bone, and I screamed. Kael’s roar answered mine, his grip tightening involuntarily as he stumbled.
The priestess screamed something, but I couldn’t hear her. Couldn’t hear anything beyond the roar of blood in my ears and the burn lacing through my veins.
Then—silence.
Where our skin had met, a mark pulsed in phosphorescent light. A crescent moon, glowing with a heartbeat of its own.
The priestess backed away. “Moon’s wrath… this isn’t a mating bond.”
Kael pulled back, breath ragged, eyes wide with something dangerously close to fear. “What magic is this?”
A blade was suddenly at my throat.
The Alpha had moved so fast that I hadn’t seen him. His eyes gleamed with rage. “What have you cursed my son with, witch?”
“I should ask the same,” I hissed.
Kael stepped forward.
“Touch her again,” he growled, “and I’ll tear this alliance apart with my teeth.”
I blinked.
So did everyone else.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
I could feel the bond thrumming through me—like a tether. Every inch of where Kael had touched me still burned. But not with pain.
With something worse.
Recognition.
The priestess's voice was a whisper: “If you touch again... you’ll die.”
✧
Earlier that evening...
They locked me in a stone chamber just before moonrise. It was bare, save for a bed that looked like it hadn’t been used in years, a basin of cold water, and a pale shift draped over a chair like an accusation.
“Put it on,” said the Beta female who escorted me. “Your Alpha doesn’t want you arriving in chains.”
I waited until the door slammed shut.
Then I threw the shift into the fire.
It didn’t burn fast. The fabric hissed, thick with oils and spell-threads meant for rituals. I didn’t care. Let them dress a corpse.
The door creaked again.
Kael stood in the threshold, one hand braced against the wood, the other holding something silver.
My chains.
He set them on the ground between us like a peace offering.
"Ravenmoon prides itself on dignity,” he said. “That includes free will.”
I scoffed. “This coming from the wolf who stood silent while they shackled me like a beast?”
His eyes narrowed. “You think I wanted this? You think I asked for a cursed bride from a clan that dreams of killing mine?”
We stared at each other.
Something passed between us then. Not desire. Not yet.
But something.
“I’d rather die than let you claim me,” I said.
He looked tired. “If I wanted to claim you, Elara… you’d know.”
Then his jaw twitched.
And I saw it—the briefest flicker of something strange. A twitch in his arm. A shiver along my wrist.
A thread pulling tight.
Neither of us understood what it meant.
Not yet.
……………………………………
Now.
Chaos erupted.
Guards moved. The Alpha lunged again. Kael didn’t hesitate.
“Run,” he said.
And he shoved me toward the window.
I didn’t think. I leapt.
Wind tore at my dress. Shouts followed. I thought I was falling to my death until sharp teeth caught my cloak and wrenched me sideways onto the back of something powerful and fast.
Not a horse.
A wolf.
Kael’s eyes met mine as he ran.
Golden. Wild.
Terrified.
That’s when I saw it again. The glow.
A mark on his flank, the mirror of mine. Not a bond. A warning. We weren’t destined to be mates. We were cursed.
And it was only a matter of time before one of us died.
- Writer
