Chapter 2 The Bond

Chapter Two: The Bond

There was silence first. The kind that drowns you.

No whispers. No gasps. No chants from the Seers. Just the snap of the last ember curling up toward the rafters... and my heartbeat, clanging against my ribs like it wanted to escape.

My palm still glowing. Still burning. Still marked.

Not Lira's.

Mine.

I was the one the Moon Flame had chosen.

No. No, no, no. There had to be a mistake. The Flame never got it wrong. And yet, it couldn't be right either. My knees threatened to give, but I stood frozen, sweat slick on my neck, eyes darting to find Lira in the crowd.

She wasn't looking at me. She was looking at the Seers, her mouth twisted into something unreadabledisgust, fear, betrayal, fury. Then she turned her gaze on me.

And that was worse. That look could've split stone.

The Seers didn't move. Not one of them. Not even Elder Malric, who always had something cryptic and maddening to say. The flame had chosen, and tradition bound their tongues until the ritual was done.

Until the mate was revealed.

I heard a low growl before I saw him. The air shifted, heavy and sharp. A presence pushed through the stunned silence like thunder on snow.

Commander Kade Blackthorn stepped forward, boots thudding on the stone floor. Even without his wolf form, he was a giant of a man. Six-foot-something, built like he'd been carved by war itself. Long dark hair tied at the nape. Cold steel eyes locked on mine.

The bond flared.

My mark lit up againblinding this timeand a second flame burst from the Moon Pit, curling toward him like a thread of fate spun from fire.

Kade's hand shot out, palm up. A silver crescent burned into his skin.

The ceremony was complete.

The mate bond is sealed.

"No," Kade said, voice low and furious. He turned to the Seers. "Undo it. Now."

Gasps rippled through the chamber. One Seer stepped back like he'd been struck. Elder Malric finally moved, lips pressing into a grim line.

"The Moon has spoken, Commander."

Kade's jaw clenched, hard enough I thought he'd shatter a tooth. "You said it would be Lira."

The moment her name was spoken, I felt the crack form. In the room. In the bond. In my chest.

Everyone had expected Lira. Even Kade.

Especially Kade.

"The Moon is never wrong," Malric said. He said it like it hurt him, too.

Lira stepped forward. Her hands were shaking at her sides, clenched into fists. "This is a mistake. She can't even hold a blade. She's never shifted fully. I've trained for this. I've"

"Silence," Malric snapped, louder than I'd ever heard him. "The Flame chose."

I should've said something. Thanked the gods. Fallen to my knees. Instead, I stood there like a statue with a dying storm trapped in her chest.

Kade looked at me like I'd ruined his life.

And maybe I had.

They escorted me away while the Seers argued in hushed tones. Kade didn't follow. Lira didn't even look at me.

I was taken to a stone chamber meant for the Luna-in-waiting. Clean, warm, with robes of midnight blue laid out on a carved wooden bench.

I sat. Stared at my hands. At the mark that still glowed faintly, even in the dark.

The Flame had chosen me.

But why?

A knock. The door creaked open. Kade stepped in without asking.

I jumped to my feet. "Commander"

He shut the door behind him. Didn't speak.

We stood in silence for a beat that felt like an hour.

"You're Ayla," he said, not a question.

I nodded. "Yes."

He looked me up and down, not with hunger or interestjust calculation. Like a soldier studying a broken weapon.

"You were supposed to die."

My blood iced.

He said it so simply. So matter-of-fact. Like it wasn't a threat. Like it was just a truth he'd been handed.

"Excuse me?"

"The prophecy said only one twin would survive the Choosing. We prepared for Lira to ascend. If the Flame had marked you in error..."

"You think the Moon made a mistake?"

His jaw flexed again. "I think someone tampered with the ritual."

I swallowed hard. "So what, you're going to kill me? Rip the mark off and hope the Moon picks someone else?"

Kade's nostrils flared. He took a slow step forward. "I'm not going to kill you, Ayla."

My breath caught.

"But if this bond is real," he said, voice dropping into something darker, "you better learn to be useful. Fast. Because war is coming. And I won't die because you were too weak to stand."

I didn't sleep that night.

The mark burned like frostbite under my skin. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw flames. Not the warm, sacred kindbut a blaze out of control.

I thought of Lira's face. The moment her fate slipped through her fingers.

I thought of Kade's voice. Cold. Final.

You were supposed to die.

At dawn, the scream shattered everything.

I bolted upright, heart thundering.

Another scream. And then a howl.

I rushed to the window just in time to see one of the Seers fall to the courtyard stone, throat opened wide, robes drenched in red.

Blood. So much blood.

Another figurehooded, fastdarted through the mist. I saw a flash of silver. A blade.

Then more screams.

I didn't think so. I ran.

Down the hall. Barefoot. Past guards who shouted at me to stop. I turned the corner to the sacred chamberand stopped cold.

Bodies. Seers. All of them. Dead.

The Moon Pit smoldered, ash and flame swirling in the air like a dying curse.

On the far wall, burned deep into the stone, were the words:

ONLY ONE TWIN SHALL LIVE.

A cold hand grabbed my arm.

I screameduntil I saw his eyes.

Kade.

"We have to go," he said, voice tight. "Now."

"What happened?"

He didn't answer. Just pulled me through the hall, fast and brutal. I could barely keep up.

"Lira," I whispered. "She did this."

He didn't deny it.

We made it outside. The wind stung my face. Wolves howled in the distance. Not mourning. Hunting.

"You're a target now," Kade said. "She's declared war."

He looked down at me, and for the first time, there was something in his eyes that wasn't hatred.

Fear.

And maybe...

Pity.

"We ride at nightfall," he said.

"Where?"

"Somewhere they won't expect."

I stared back at the temple. Smoke coiled into the clouds.

"What do we do now?"

Kade's voice was low. Heavy. Final.

"Now we survive."