Chapter 5 A Pact in the Dark

The air between them crackled like a live wire. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved - Lila standing defiantly beneath Adrien's claws, his shadow swallowing hers in the clearing where moonlight dared not fully touch.

Her words lingered like an oath:

"Not a monster. My wolf."

Adrien's breath hitched, a sound too human for the beast he wore like a second skin. His eyes, so bright they almost glowed, searched her face as if expecting her to flinch - to see the horror, the revulsion he had earned a hundred times over. But Lila didn't step back. She tilted her chin up, baring her throat to him the way prey might surrender to its hunter - but her eyes burned with a promise of anything but fear.

"Say it again," he murmured, voice thick with something darker than anger, older than sorrow.

She did not hesitate. "You're not a monster. You're mine."

A growl built in his chest, rising and breaking like a wave crashing against stone. His grip on her shoulders tightened, claws pricking her cloak without breaking skin. For a wild second, Lila thought he might kiss her - if kissing was a thing for wolves and cursed princes. But instead, he wrenched himself away, stumbling back until his chains yanked taut, anchoring him once more to his prison of roots and ancient magic.

"Foolish girl," he rasped. "Do you know what you've done? You bind yourself to me with words like that."

"Then bind me properly." The words slipped out before she could weigh them, soft but steady.

Adrien's snarl turned into bitter laughter. "You have no idea what you ask. The forest will devour you for it. The villagers - that huntsman - they'll burn your name alongside mine if they suspect-"

"I don't care!" Lila stepped closer, so close she could see the way his pulse beat wildly in the hollow of his throat. "Teach me how to help you, Adrien. Teach me how to fight back."

A night wind stirred, rattling the canopy high above. Somewhere deeper in the forest, a lone wolf answered with a howl that made her bones quake - and yet, the sound no longer terrified her. Not when she had heard Adrien's voice behind the growl, the man in the monster.

He turned his face away from her then, jaw tight, fighting an inner war she could not see. When he spoke, his voice was a harsh whisper swallowed by the trees.

"There are laws older than your village. Older than your ancestors who cut these woods into farmland. If you stand with me - truly stand with me - they will mark you as traitor to your own kind."

"Then so be it," she said, a breathless defiance that tasted of iron and moonlight.

Adrien laughed again, but there was no cruelty left in it. Only something like mourning for the girl she had been, the one who would never walk away unchanged.

"Very well," he murmured. "Then listen, Lila of Raven Hollow. If you wish to free me, you must first unbind the forest itself."

He sank to one knee before her, the chains at his wrists pooling like dead snakes at his feet. His head bowed, hair spilling over his eyes.

"Place your hand here," he said, lifting one shackled wrist. His skin was cold, yet it burned where she touched him.

"Repeat after me."

She nodded, swallowing her fear, her trembling drowned by the fierce drum of her heart.

"By moon and root, by blood and bone-" Adrien whispered, voice carrying the weight of centuries.

"By moon and root, by blood and bone-" she echoed.

"I bind my fate to the keeper of this forest's heart."

"I bind my fate to the keeper of this forest's heart."

"Let my soul stand guard beside his, against man, against beast, until the forest yields its chains."

Lila's voice wavered only once. "Let my soul stand guard beside his, against man, against beast, until the forest yields its chains."

The instant the last word fell from her lips, the forest seemed to exhale. The wind died, replaced by a hush so deep her ears rang with the silence. Beneath her palm, Adrien's pulse leapt once - a shock that jolted through her veins, binding her to him in ways no priest or ring could mimic.

When he lifted his head, the gold in his eyes flared brighter than ever. For the first time, she saw no sorrow there. Only an unspoken vow.

"You are mine now, Lila Ainsley," he said, the growl returning, but softer somehow - reverent. "Whatever comes, you stand as pack to me."

Her breath left her in a rush. "And you are mine."

The moment splintered like glass at the crack of a branch behind them. Adrien's ears twitched. His head snapped up, nose lifting to catch a scent Lila could not yet smell.

"Hide," he hissed. "Go. Now."

But she was too slow. From the darkness beyond the clearing, torchlight flared, and the snap of a rifle's bolt echoed louder than any howl.

"Well, well," Gideon Thorn's voice drawled, dripping poison. He stepped into view, flanked by two broad-shouldered farmhands armed with pitchforks and knives.

"Did I not warn you, Miss Ainsley?" Thorn's grin was all teeth, no warmth. "Looks like the beast has himself a pretty little accomplice."

Adrien snarled, the forest shuddering as his chains strained against his sudden lunge - but they held him back, iron biting deep into old wounds.

"Don't you touch her!" his voice thundered, half-beast, half-prince, wholly hers.

But Thorn only laughed, raising his rifle to his shoulder. "Stay still, girl. This won't take long."

Lila's hands clenched around her basket. Inside, her fingers brushed the cool handle of the small boning knife she had hidden beneath the bread and scraps.

She lifted her chin, heart hammering.

Not a monster.

Her wolf.

And she would fight for him - even if it killed her.