KAEL POV
The golden light exploded between us, and I knew my life was over.
Not dead—worse. Bonded. Chained to this human girl who didn't know what she was doing, who'd just activated ancient Tamer magic in front of twenty witnesses, who was about to make me her mate whether I wanted it or not.
"No!" I lunged forward, trying to break through the light, trying to stop what was happening. "Stop it! You don't know what you're—"
Too late.
Her blood—still wet on my chest from when I caught her earlier—ignited like liquid fire. The golden symbols on her arms matched the ones burning into my skin, spreading across my chest, down my arms, marking me as hers.
Pain. Burning, searing pain that made me roar. My wolf howled inside me, torn between rage and triumph. MATE, it screamed. OURS. FINALLY OURS.
But this wasn't chosen. Wasn't wanted. Wasn't the sacred bond my people had honored for thousands of years.
This was theft.
The bond snapped into place like a steel trap closing around my heart, and suddenly I felt her. Not just saw her standing there terrified—I felt her emotions like they were my own. Her fear crashing through me in waves. Her confusion battering against my mind. Her desperation to survive making my wolf whimper with the need to protect.
"Get out of my head!" I snarled, clutching my skull. But she was everywhere inside me now, tangled up in my thoughts and feelings, and I was inside her too.
I could feel her trying to understand what was happening. Could feel her guilt that she'd hurt me somehow. Could feel her wondering if I was going to kill her.
Maybe I should, I thought viciously.
She flinched like I'd slapped her, and I realized with horror that she'd heard that thought. The bond went both ways. Everything I felt, she felt. Everything I thought, she could hear.
Perfect. Just perfect.
The light finally faded, leaving us both panting and marked and irrevocably connected.
The girl stared at the symbols now covering her skin—more than before, brighter than before, pulsing with power. Then she looked at me, at the matching marks on my chest, and her honey-colored eyes went wide.
"What did you do to me?" she whispered.
I almost laughed. Almost. "What did I do? You're the one who bonded me! You're the Tamer! This is your magic!"
"I don't have magic! I don't even know what a Tamer is!"
"Liar." I stalked toward her and she backed away. Good. She should be afraid. "Tamers are soul-binders. They mark beastmen, control them, use them as weapons. You just claimed me as your mate without asking, without permission, without any of the sacred rituals. Do you understand what you've done?"
Tears filled her eyes. "I didn't mean to! I don't know how any of this works! I just wanted help!"
Her terror flooded through the bond, and my wolf whimpered. Don't hurt mate. Protect mate. She's scared.
I pushed my wolf down hard. "You wanted help? You just forced a bond on an Alpha wolf in front of both our enemies and my own pack. The Council will demand your execution for this."
"Execution?" Her voice cracked. "For what? I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Forced bonds are forbidden!" I roared. The clearing went silent—everyone watching, everyone listening. "Bonds are sacred! They're supposed to be chosen freely, not ripped from someone's soul because a human doesn't know better!"
Around us, my pack growled their agreement. I could see Finn's face—shock and betrayal. I could see Raze watching with amusement, probably already planning how to use this against me.
And I could feel the girl's heart breaking through our bond.
He hates me, she thought. Everyone here wants me dead. I survived a temple collapse and a monster attack just to die anyway.
The despair in that thought made my chest ache, and I hated it. Hated that I could feel her pain. Hated that my wolf wanted to comfort her. Hated that some part of me—small but growing—understood she really hadn't meant to do this.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, looking at the ground. "I didn't know. I don't know anything about this place or bonds or Tamers. I just wanted to go home."
"Well, you can't." The words came out harsh. "The bond is permanent. You're stuck with me, and I'm stuck with you, and neither of us can change it."
She looked up at me then, and I saw something shift in her expression. The fear was still there, but underneath it, something harder. Something that reminded me why humans had once ruled this world.
"Then teach me," she said. "If I'm stuck here, if this bond can't be broken, then teach me how to survive. Because I'm not going to just lie down and die."
Despite everything, I felt a flicker of respect. She was terrified, hurt, completely out of her depth—and still fighting.
My dead mate had been like that. Strong even when the world tried to break her.
The memory made my chest tight. I'd sworn never to bond again after losing her. Sworn never to give my heart to someone who could be taken away. And now this human girl had forced a bond, forced me to feel again, forced me to care whether she lived or died.
I hated her for it.
"Fine," I growled. "I'll teach you. But first, we're getting out of here before someone decides to kill you anyway."
"Kael!" Raze called out, his tiger-striped face grinning. "You're just going to keep her? The Council will—"
"The Council can try to take my mate from me," I interrupted, putting every ounce of Alpha dominance into my voice. "But they'll have to go through me first. And I don't lose fights."
The threat hung in the air. My pack shifted nervously. They knew what I was saying—that I'd fight them all if they tried to hurt her. That the bond had made her mine, whether I liked it or not, and I protected what was mine.
The girl swayed on her feet, still bleeding from the Feral's attack. I caught her before she fell—again—and lifted her into my arms.
She stiffened. "I can walk."
"You can barely stand. Don't argue with me."
Through the bond, I felt her embarrassment at being carried like a child, but also her relief that someone was helping her. That she wasn't alone anymore.
Neither am I, I thought bitterly. I'll never be alone again, thanks to you.
She didn't respond to that thought, but I felt her wince like I'd wounded her.
Good. We were both trapped now. Might as well both suffer.
I started walking, carrying her away from the clearing, away from the witnesses. My pack followed at a distance, unsure what to do. Raze's clan melted back into the forest, probably running to spread the news.
By nightfall, everyone in the Beastworld would know: Kael Nightfang had been forcibly bonded by a human Tamer.
My reputation was destroyed. My authority as Alpha was questioned. My life was completely ruined.
All because this girl had bled on me.
"Where are we going?" she asked quietly.
"My den. You're under my protection now, like it or not."
"And then what?"
"Then you face the Council." I looked down at her, at those honey eyes that were now connected to my soul forever. "And we pray they don't execute us both for breaking sacred law."
Her fear spiked through the bond. "Both of us? Why you?"
"Because bonded pairs share fates. If they kill you, the bond will kill me too. We live together or die together now." I smiled without humor. "Congratulations. You didn't just trap yourself. You trapped me too."
The horror on her face would have been satisfying if I couldn't feel how much it was tearing her apart inside.
We walked in silence after that, bonded and broken, heading toward a future neither of us wanted.
And through the bond, I felt her whisper a thought she didn't mean for me to hear:
I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.
My wolf whimpered, wanting to forgive her.
I refused.
What Kael doesn't know: The Council's High Priestess Lysandra has been waiting three hundred years for a Tamer to return. Not to honor them. To kill them. And she's already sending assassins to finish what the Council trial will start.