Chapter 3 The Bond Beneath The Skin

The next morning came wrapped in silver fog and bone-deep silence.

Aria stirred from uneasy sleep, the borrowed furs clinging to her like ivy. For a moment, she forgot where she was-until the scent of smoke and pine hit her. And the faint hum in her chest that hadn't been there before.

The bond.

She sat up too fast, heart pounding. It wasn't a voice. It wasn't a feeling. It was just... there. A pull under her skin, subtle but unyielding, as though something invisible was tethering her to someone else.

To him.

Kael Dreven.

Aria clenched her fists. This couldn't be happening. A Moonmarked forming a bond with an Alpha? It was impossible. Wrong. Dangerous.

And yet-

A knock at the door broke her thoughts. Before she could answer, it opened. A girl about Aria's age stepped in, holding a folded bundle of clothes and a wooden tray with food.

Her eyes flicked to Aria's mark, then quickly away. "Alpha said you'd need these."

Aria took the clothes silently. The girl hesitated, then added, "I'm Rynna. Omega rank. Don't worry, I won't tell the others how scared you look."

Aria gave her a dry look, but a small, bitter smile tugged at her lips anyway. "I'm not scared."

"You smell like it," Rynna replied bluntly. Then, she shrugged. "But if Kael hasn't thrown you to the wolves, you must be special."

Special. What a cruel word.

Once Rynna left, Aria changed quickly into the simple black leggings and gray tunic. She braided her hair away from her face, eyeing herself in the mirror. The girl staring back looked more wolf than girl now-worn, raw, scarred. But her eyes still burned with survival.

She wouldn't be their victim. Not again.

---

Kael stood in the war tent, surrounded by maps and tension. The other alphas and elders had been summoned. He hadn't told them why.

When Aria stepped through the flap behind him, the room froze.

The Elders-three silver-haired wolves with eyes sharp as broken glass-stared at her like she was poison.

"She should not be here," one of them said, lips curling. "That thing-"

"She is under my protection," Kael said without turning.

"Kael, this is a mistake," growled Elder Varric. "If you let her stay, the other Packs will revolt. You're putting all of Nightfang at risk."

"She touched me," Kael said simply, "and I'm still alive."

The silence that followed was thunderous.

"She is Moonmarked," Varric hissed. "It is only a matter of time before-"

"I don't care about your superstitions," Kael snapped, finally facing them. "I care about truth. And facts. And the fact is-what we know about her may be wrong."

Aria stood tall, but inside her legs were shaking. These men wanted her dead. She could feel it. But Kael... Kael stood between them and her like a wall of stone.

She hated it.

And needed it.

"I didn't ask for your protection," she said to him quietly.

He looked at her, eyes unreadable. "You have it anyway."

"You can't trust her," another Elder muttered. "The Moonmark corrupts. It always has."

"Or maybe it only reacts when provoked," Kael said. "Maybe what we've been calling a curse is something else entirely."

"And what do you suggest?" Elder Varric asked coldly. "We test her? Use her like an experiment?"

Kael's voice was deadly calm. "No. But I'll be watching her myself."

---

That night, the camp buzzed with whispers. Some said Kael had gone mad. Others said the Moonmarked girl was his mate-fated by the moon itself. Aria sat alone in her room, watching the firelight dance across the stone walls, trying not to think about the bond crawling through her veins like slow heat.

The knock came again.

This time, it was him.

Kael stepped inside without waiting for permission. He looked tired-his armor gone, dark shirt rolled at the sleeves, hair damp from snow.

"We need to talk," he said.

"I figured."

He folded his arms. "You feel it, don't you?"

Aria's pulse skipped. "I don't know what it is."

"Don't lie."

Her gaze sharpened. "What do you want me to say, Kael? That I'm tethered to someone who could destroy me just by breathing wrong? That every cell in my body is screaming to run, but something deeper-older-is telling me to stay?"

His jaw clenched. "The bond shouldn't be possible."

"Neither should you surviving my touch."

He looked at her for a long moment, then stepped closer.

"It's not just a bond," he said, voice lower now. "It's a pull. I feel it too. And I don't like it any more than you do."

"Then break it."

"If I could, I would've done it already."

Their eyes locked-Alpha and Moonmarked. Predator and curse.

But something was changing.

Something was already changed.

"Tomorrow," Kael said finally, backing away, "we ride to the Oracle. If anyone knows what's happening to us, it's her."

"And if she says I'm dangerous?"

Kael didn't hesitate. "Then I'll decide what kind of danger you are."

And he left.

Leaving Aria alone with the fire, and the truth:

This bond wasn't fading.

It was only getting stronger.