THE BINDING MARK

Chapter 1: The Awakening

Chapter One: The Awakening

The wolf vanished as quickly as it had appeared. One moment, golden eyes burning in the shadows. The next, nothing but candlelight and lies.

Luca hadn't seen it. His focus remained on his phone, pulling up files, maps, photographs of Viktor Volkov's operations. But Ava had seen. She always saw.

"I need to sit down," she said.

Luca guided her to the library—the same room where, six years ago, she had told him she couldn't stay. Leather chairs, a fireplace that hadn't been lit in decades, books bound in human skin if the rumors were true.

Ava sank into the nearest chair. "Your family's curse. How much of it is real?"

"All of it." Luca sat across from her, elbows on his knees. "My ancestor made a deal with a shadow entity. Power for blood. Wealth for suffering. Every firstborn son carries the mark." He rolled up his sleeve again. The wolf's head glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat. "When the mark burns, the curse is active. And when the curse is active..."

"People die."

"People die." He met her eyes. "Three months ago, the mark started burning every night. Same time. Same dream. A woman in a field of ash. A hand reaching through the darkness." He paused. "Your hand."

Ava's throat tightened. "I've been having the same dream."

"I know. The Sinclair sight connects you to the binding. You see what the curse wants you to see."

"And what does the curse want?"

"Blood. Sacrifice. A new vessel." Luca stood, pacing. "Viktor Volkov isn't just a crime lord. He's a necromancer. He's been studying the binding for thirty years. He believes he can transfer the curse from the Romano bloodline to himself—if he has a Seer to guide the ritual."

"A Seer."

"You, Ava. Your grandmother. Anyone with Sinclair blood who can perceive the threads of fate." He stopped pacing. "That's why your company is under attack. Viktor doesn't want your money. He wants you desperate. Isolated. Alone. So you'll come to him for help."

"Instead, I came to you."

"Instead, you came to me." Luca knelt before her, taking her hands. His skin was warm—too warm, feverish. The mark on his forearm blazed gold. "The bond is waking up, Ava. Every moment we're together, the curse grows stronger. But every moment we're apart, Viktor gets closer to finding you."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we have two choices. We run—separately, forever, and hope Viktor never catches up. Or we fight—together, using the bond, ending the curse for good."

Ava stared at their joined hands. The mark's glow reflected in her eyes.

"My mother tried to run," she said quietly. "She had the sight too. She saw what was coming—Viktor's hunters, the fire, the death. So she left. Abandoned me and my father to save herself."

"Is that what you think? That she was saving herself?"

"I know she was. She left a note. I can't be what you need me to be." Ava laughed bitterly. "I was eighteen years old."

Luca squeezed her hands. "Your mother was a coward. You're not."

"How do you know?"

"Because you're here. Because you drove to the estate of the man who broke your heart, in the middle of a crisis, and you asked for help." He released her hands, standing. "That's not running. That's the opposite of running."

Ava stood too, her legs unsteady. "If we fight Viktor, people will die."

"People always die. The question is whether they die for something or nothing."

The library door opened.

Marco Romano stood in the frame, younger than Luca, sharper, hungrier. His eyes flicked to Ava, then to his brother.

"Viktor's men are at the gate," Marco said. "Six of them. Armed. They're demanding to see the Sinclair woman."

Luca moved instantly, positioning himself between Ava and the door. "How did they find her?"

"Someone told them." Marco's voice was flat. "Someone inside the family."

Ava's blood went cold. A mole. Again.

"Who?" Luca demanded.

"I don't know yet. But I'll find out." Marco's gaze met Ava's. "You shouldn't have come here. You've brought the war to our doorstep."

"Marco—" Luca started.

"No. She left six years ago. She broke your heart. She disappeared without a word. And now she shows up with enemies on her heels, expecting us to clean up her mess?" Marco stepped into the room, his hand on the gun holstered at his hip. "I say we hand her over. Save ourselves."

Luca moved faster than Ava could track. One moment he was across the room. The next, he had Marco pinned against the wall, forearm across his brother's throat.

"Say that again," Luca whispered. "I dare you."

Marco's face reddened, but he didn't fight. "You're blind, brother. She's using you. She's always used you."

"Get out."

"Luca—"

"Get. Out."

Marco shoved free, straightening his jacket. He looked at Ava one last time—hatred and something else, something wounded—and left.

The door slammed.

Ava let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "He's not wrong. I did leave. I did break your heart."

"And I let you." Luca turned to face her. "I was too proud to chase you. Too scared to admit that my family's curse might be the reason I couldn't let you go." He touched the mark on his arm. "Every Romano firstborn is destined to lose the woman he loves. The curse feeds on grief. On loneliness. On the spaces where love used to be."

"That's why you didn't come after me."

"I thought if I let you go, I'd be saving you. Breaking the cycle. Proving the curse wrong." He laughed, hollow. "Instead, I just made us both miserable."

Outside, headlights cut through the darkness. Viktor's men.

Ava stepped toward the window. Six figures in black, approaching the gate.

"They're early," she said.

"They're testing us." Luca joined her. "They want to see if we'll panic."

"Will we?"

Luca took her hand. The mark on his arm blazed—and on her palm, hidden beneath skin, a matching symbol began to glow. The Seer's mark. The one her grandmother had said would only appear when she found her fated match.

Ava stared at her hand. At the light spreading across her fingers like fire.

"What's happening to me?"

"The bond is completing," Luca said. "When a Romano firstborn and a Sinclair Seer unite, the curse can be broken. Or fulfilled." His voice dropped. "There's no in-between."

The gate groaned. Viktor's men were through.

And in the corner of the library, the wolf with golden eyes watched and waited.