Chapter 6 THE FEELING OF CONNECTION

CHAPTER 6

KAIDEN'S POV

I felt it the moment she stepped onto Ashborne land.

The bond muted and distant these past few days flared like a spark in my chest. Pain, laced with something sharper than longing. It burned through me, waking the wolf I'd been trying to silence since the ceremony.

My hands trembled where they rested on the table, war maps forgotten. The air in the war room thickened, my breath catching like smoke in my throat.

"Aria." I muttered, clenching my fists tightly and closing my eyes in frustration, trying to calm my breathing.

Elias, my Beta, lifted his head. "What is it?"

"She's back. In the ruins." I answer him, feeling the pain in my chest increasing second by second.

His eyebrows frown in disbelief as he stares at me. "That's suicide. If she gets caught then..." He words trails off, and I know what he's going to say.

"She won't be caught." I said. She can't get caught. "She's not that foolish." I don't know if I'm telling him or myself.

He studied me for a beat, then returned to the map. "Are you going after her?" He asks and I lean back on my seat.

"I don't know." I muttered, not sure what to do.

"You do." I hear him saying quietly. "You always do when it's about her." He adds and I look at him.

My jaw clenched tightly. "That doesn't mean I should." I growled, getting up from my seat.

"No." Elias replied. "It means you can't stay away. Away from her. Or away from the truth. That you and her are bound together for life."

I left the room in silence, the stone halls of Blackridge echoing with my steps. The guards parted as I passed, no one daring to speak. I was Alpha, but right now, I didn't feel like a leader. I felt like a storm held barely in check.

The stables were quiet. My horse snorted when he saw me, sensing my unrest. I barely saddled him before swinging onto his back, heart thundering like hooves.

As I rode toward the Ashborne estate, snow began to fall in slow, lazy spirals. The wind whispered through the trees, brushing against my skin like a warning. My wolf prowled inside me, every stride of the horse making the bond throb harder.

She was close. I could feel her.

The ruins loomed ahead like a broken crown. Blackened stone towers, scorched doorframes, cracked windows staring out like hollow eyes. Time hadn't been kind to the Ashborne land. Neither had we.

I dismounted from my horse and moved toward the main hall.

The moment I stepped inside, her scent hit me like lightning, Moonlight and pine. Smoke and fire. Her. It clung to the air, fresh and fierce. She had been here. Recently. My heart lurched in my throat.

Elias's words echoed in my mind: 'You always do when it's about her.'

I followed the trail through the ruined halls, my boots crunching over old ash and shattered glass. The study door hung off one hinge as I stepped inside.

She'd found the panel. The hidden one behind the sigil. My father's secret. The secret that has been hidden for years. But now?

The journal was gone.

So was the map.

I leaned against the scorched wall, the ghost of her presence still alive in the air. I closed my eyes and breathed her in.

"She knows." I whispered, closing my eyes and breathing her lingering scent in the air.

A memory surged: the night her father died. His last words, spoken in fury and desperation, meant something to me. Only me.

"Protect her. One day, she'll awaken the fire they fear."

I hadn't understood then.

But now I do.

I moved to the desk and opened the false drawer. Empty. She'd taken it all. The scrolls. The coded glyphs. Everything my father spent his life hiding.

Footsteps approached and I knew who it was, without seeing him. Elias had followed me to here.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked, looking at me carefully. I can feel his gaze on my every action as I tried to check everything.

"I don't know what choice I have." I replied honestly, because I seriously have no idea what to do.

"You always have a choice." Elias said as he stepped beside me. "You chose to stay silent before. Will you do it again?"

I stared at him, guilt gnawing at my gut. "I was seventeen. What could I have done?" I tried to reason with him but I, myself, don't feel confident in that.

"You could've spoken. stood up for her. Fought for her. You were Alpha even then." He says and I clench my fists, because he's brutally right.

"I was afraid." I admit, looking out of the window, trying to catch even the slightest sight of her. Just her.

"And now?" Elias asks, stopping me dead in my steps.

I didn't answer. Because the truth was, I still was.

But maybe this time, the fear wouldn't win.

I stepped into the snow, with Elias on my heels, watching the wind twist through the broken estate. Somewhere out there, she carried the truth. And soon, she'd come for answers.

Or for blood. My blood.

"Aria." I whispered her name into the wind, wishing I had chosen a different path years ago.

If I had chosen her.

And the fire between us would finally ignite.