The forest had teeth. Arielle realized that now. Every step she took seemed to echo in the shadows, every snapped twig sounding like a warning.
Her pulse raced—not just from fear, but from something else. Something she didn't want to admit.
He's out there, she thought, every fiber of her being screaming his name. Kael Blackthorn…
The trees shifted, and a low growl rumbled through the underbrush. Arielle froze. Her wolf stirred beneath her skin, instinctive and alive, warning her. She wasn't prepared for this. She didn't even know what she was becoming.
"You shouldn't be here," a voice said from the shadows.
She tensed, spinning toward it. Silver eyes gleamed in the darkness. Kael Blackthorn.
How does he always know?
"You followed me," he said, tone cold, controlled, but there was heat in it—anger? Desire? She couldn't tell.
"I… I didn't mean to," she stammered. Her pulse spiked, heat rushing to her cheeks. Why do I feel like I've known him forever?
He stepped closer. The pull between them tightened, invisible but suffocating. Every instinct she had screamed to run, yet her body betrayed her, leaning just slightly toward him.
"You feel it too," she whispered.
Kael's jaw clenched. "I don't want to," he muttered, but his eyes betrayed him. Silver, molten, impossibly magnetic.
The tension crackled like electricity. The air between them was thick with unsaid words, with want, with something dangerous that neither of them could control.
A branch snapped somewhere in the distance, and both of them flinched. Their surroundings reminded them of the pack hunters lurking nearby, but neither moved away from the other.
"You're… mine," he said finally, almost under his breath.
Arielle's knees nearly buckled. No… impossible… But her wolf growled in agreement, low and feral.
"I don't belong to you," she whispered back, but even as she said it, her hand twitched toward his chest. Just to touch. Just to feel him.
Kael's wolf growled, frustrated, desperate, echoing his own inner chaos. His hand twitched toward her arm. Then he stopped.
"I rejected you once," he said, voice rough. "I won't—"
But the words were meaningless. They were too close. The air was too charged. Every step they had taken to deny the bond was falling apart.
Arielle could feel the thread of fate tightening. Every beat of her heart pulsed with him. Every inhale carried the scent of him—silver and forest and something primal she couldn't name.
Kael's eyes softened—just slightly—before he pulled back, groaning under the weight of restraint.
"You need to leave," he said. "Before it's worse."
She shook her head. "I… I can't."
And maybe I don't want to, her wolf added, echoing in her mind.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The forest was silent. The pack hunters were close, but invisible. Only the tension between them existed.
Finally, Kael turned, his shoulders rigid, his jaw tight. "Go. Now. Or I can't protect you."
Arielle wanted to argue, to stay, to throw herself into his arms, to scream at him to stop denying what the Moon had already claimed. But she obeyed. For now.
Her legs carried her forward, but her chest burned with every step. The bond had marked her. Fate had chosen her. And Kael… Kael Blackthorn, the man who rejected her, would never truly let her go.