Episode 5 – The Council’s Chains
1108 Words
The first thing I felt was cold.
Not the quiet, ordinary cold of winter stone—but the cutting, living chill of magic sinking into my bones.
Silver light flared above me as hands forced my arms outward. Iron bands snapped shut around my wrists, sending a violent shock through my body. I cried out, the sound tearing from my throat as pain rippled through the bond like lightning.
My wolf screamed inside me.
The Moon’s whisper hissed through the air again, low and terrible.
“Mine.”
The guards dragged me fully into the corridor, their faces pale with unease. I fought instinctively, pulling against the chains, but the metal burned my skin as if alive. Runes glowed along their surface—ancient, binding, merciless.
“Don’t resist,” one of the elders snapped. “It will only worsen the drain.”
Drain.
My knees buckled as something invisible ripped at the unfamiliar warmth that had settled beneath my skin since the forest. My breath came in sharp, ragged bursts.
“Please,” I choked. “I haven’t done anything.”
Elder Varyn stood before me with sorrow in his eyes.
“No,” he said quietly. “But you will. That is the danger.”
They pulled me into the council chamber.
The doors slammed shut behind us with echoing finality.
Torches lined the circular stone walls. At the center, the council seats rose in a half ring of carved obsidian—a throne of judgment I had scrubbed beneath more times than I could count. Now I stood in its center like a condemned offering.
Mara stepped forward, her expression carved from ice.
“Faye Winters,” she declared, “by authority of the Bloodmoon Council, you are hereby placed under arcane restraint until the nature of your power is fully determined.”
“You can’t,” I whispered. “The Alpha—”
“The Alpha is delayed,” she cut in. “And this is no longer a matter of pack politics.”
The chains tightened.
Fire raced along my nerves.
I screamed.
The bond flared violently in response—and somewhere beyond these walls, Kael felt every ounce of it.
He hit the council doors with the full force of his body.
Stone cracked.
The guards were flung backward like broken dolls.
“Open it,” Kael roared, eyes blazing silver-gold with his wolf’s fury.
A warrior scrambled to obey, hands shaking as the massive doors groaned apart.
The scent of her pain hit him like a blade to the heart.
Blood.
Fear.
Burning magic.
Kael burst into the chamber.
And saw her—
Chained.
My vision swam as I lifted my head.
Kael stood in the doorway like a storm given flesh.
Power rolled off him in violent waves.
Relief crashed through me so hard my knees trembled.
“Kael,” I whispered.
He lunged for me.
A barrier of white light slammed down between us.
The impact sent him skidding backward across the stone.
“Enough,” Elder Varyn said sharply. “Alpha, you will stand down.”
He rose slowly, blood trailing from his temple.
“You are torturing my mate,” Kael growled.
The chamber erupted in shocked whispers.
Mara lifted her chin proudly. “The Moon may have bound you, Alpha, but she does not rule this council.”
His gaze cut to me, jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might shatter.
“You're hurting her.”
“She is awakening,” Varyn corrected grimly. “And if we do not contain it now, she may lose control.”
“I’m right here,” I cried. “I haven’t harmed anyone!”
“No,” Mara said softly. “But you will.”
Her hand lifted.
The runes along my chains flared blinding white.
Agony tore through me.
My scream echoed off every wall.
The bond howled in answer—Kael dropped to one knee with a pained snarl, clutching his chest.
“Stop it!” he roared. “You’ll break her!”
“Then she will break safely,” Mara replied coldly.
Something inside me shattered.
Not my body.
Not my heart.
Something older.
The air thickened.
The torches flickered violently.
The runes pulsing along the chains began to stutter.
“Faye,” Kael gasped through clenched teeth. “Look at me. Stay with me…”
I tried.
Stars burst behind my eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” I sobbed. “I just wanted to belong…”
The Moon answered.
Not with mercy.
With wrath.
Silver light exploded outward from my core in a violent shockwave.
Every elder was thrown backward.
The barriers shattered like glass.
The chains screamed as they heated white-hot.
And then—
They broke.
I collapsed to the floor, smoke curling from my wrists.
Silence followed.
Thick.
Stunned.
Impossible.
Kael was at my side in an instant, dropping to his knees and gathering me against his chest. His arms trembled as he held me like I might vanish if he loosened his grip.
“You’re safe,” he breathed. “I’ve got you.”
“So the Moon has chosen war,” Mara whispered from where she lay against the far wall.
I lifted my head weakly.
All eyes were on me now.
Not as an omega.
Not as property.
But as something uncertain.
Something dangerous.
“The council’s authority ends now,” Kael said coldly, rising with me still in his arms. “You will not touch her again.”
“You’ll tear the pack apart,” Mara hissed.
Kael met her gaze without flinching.
“Then it was already broken.”
The doors to the chamber burst open as guards rushed in.
Elder Varyn stared at the ruined chains, then at me.
“A Solstice-born Omega unbound,” he murmured. “The Moon has truly answered.”
Kael turned to leave.
But just as he carried me toward the door—
The air turned wrong.
Thick.
Waiting.
A voice echoed through the chamber from nowhere and everywhere at once, deep and amused:
“So small… and already breaking councils.”
Dread flooded my veins.
Kael froze.
“Who said that?” one elder demanded.
The torches guttered.
The shadows stretched.
I felt the bond tighten violently in warning.
And the unseen voice laughed.
“Keep your chains,” it purred. “I will take her freely… when she is ready.”
Then—
Silence.
The shadows retreated.
The room breathed again.
But the damage was done.
Kael held me tighter.
“This isn’t over,” he whispered to me.
No.
It had only just begun.
- Writer
