Chapter 2 Stormveil

The gates opened slowly, like the land wasn't sure it wanted to let me in.

Two wolves flanked the entrance, their eyes silver in the morning fog, but they didn't speak. They didn't bow, either. I wasn't here as Luna not really. Just a girl carrying a contract and no bond. A name on borrowed paper.

I walked through anyway.

Stormveil wasn't like Ashfall.

Ashfall was all order and structureceremonial arches, polished stone, rules carved into plaques. Stormveil bled quiet power. Its trees bent low but didn't crack. The buildings were dark-stained wood and black stone, overgrown in ivy that no one bothered to trim. The air smelled like rain that hadn't fallen yet.

It felt like the edge of something ancient.

And I wasn't sure I belonged here either.

The warrior who brought me didn't say much. His name, he finally told me, was Corin. He was Kael's third. Not Beta. Not council. Just... trusted. Which somehow made him more dangerous.

"Does everyone stare like that here?" I asked after passing the fifth person who didn't blink as I walked by.

He didn't answer.

I didn't expect him to.

He led me through the northern edge of the territory, past the old barracks, past a half-burned shrine, up a narrow hill that overlooked the river that split Stormveil from the human lands.

Then he stopped in front of a door built directly into the cliffside.

"Your quarters," he said.

"This was planned."

He nodded once. "The Alpha does not extend accidents."

Before I could ask anything else, he handed me a leather-wrapped bundle.

"Your new mark will burn when the contract is sealed. You don't scream, do you?"

I held his stare. "Not for a long time."

He gave me a sharp nod and turned away.

The room was small, but not cold. There were furs folded on the stone ledge that passed for a bed. A black tunic hung by the hearth. One window overlooked the ravine below.

And on the table near the wall, a silver bowl, a blade, and the contract itself.

My name was already written.

So was his.

Kael Drenmore.

I pressed my thumb to the signature line and felt a sting-like the magic already knew who I was.

The blood hit the parchment.

The mark flared behind my shoulder.

It burned deeper than Ashfall's ever had.

I didn't scream.

But I curled my fingers into the edge of the stone table until it cracked.

By dusk, the mark had faded into skin still raw, still aching, but no longer glowing.

I slept in fits. Flashes of silver eyes. A low hum in my bones. Something calling from beneath the cliffs.

I woke once, heart pounding, the scent of pine and blood thick in the room.

Someone had passed by the door.

But when I opened it, the corridor was empty.

The next morning, I was summoned.

No knock. Just a quiet voice outside the door.

"The Alpha is ready."

I didn't know what I expected.

But it wasn't this.

The Stormveil Hall was quiet as a tomb. No guards lined the walls. No advisors hovered near the head table. Just one man standing by the open windows, his back to me.

He didn't turn right away.

"Lyra," he said.

I swallowed. "Alpha Drenmore."

His voice was low. Controlled. But not cruel.

"Do you understand the terms?"

"Yes."

"Do you intend to break them?"

"No."

He turned.

Kael Drenmore wasn't beautifulnot in the way Cian was. Not polished or princely.

He looked like a storm that had walked too long in its own wreckage.

Scar across his collarbone. Hands calloused from war. A gaze that felt like it could see everything I'd ever buried.

"You're smaller than I expected," he said.

"You're quieter than I expected."

His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. Not quite anything.

"You'll be presented to the council tomorrow."

"Presented?" I echoed.

"They need to see what they're paying for."

L

I stiffened. "Is that all I am to you?"

"No," he said calmly. "You're also leverage."

"And here I thought I was just presence."

He stepped closer. "You are. Until you're not."

I didn't flinch.

And I think that surprised him.

He dismissed me with awave, and I left without waiting for permission.

The moment I stepped outside, the air felt different.

Charged.

The sky overhead was cloudless, but I heard thunder echo across the cliffs.

And somewhere behind me, I swore I heard him speak again.

Not to me

But to something older.

"She doesn't know yet."

That evening, I explored.

The eastern wing of the territory was less guarded, more wild. Paths disappeared into trees. Stone markers lined the ground with symbols I didn't recognize.

I stopped in front of oneetched with a crescent and three dots.

When I touched it, the air shifted.

A memory?

No. Not mine.

A whisper in a voice I didn't know.

"Moonbound."

I turned fast, heart thudding.

But no one was there.

Back in my room, a single item had been left on the table.

Not a threat. Not a gift.

A necklace.

A thin silver chain with a pendant in the shape of a broken circle.

And on the back, engraved in delicate hand:

"You've been here before."

I stared at it for a long time.

I had never stepped foot in Stormveil in my life.

Not as a child.

Not as a girl.

Not until now.

And yet

some part of me wasn't so sure.

I lay down with the pendant beside me, unable to wear it. Not yet.

Sleep didn't come easy. The walls felt like they breathed. The silence carried voices I couldn't place. And in the edge of my dreaming, I saw three wolves standing at the edge of a blood-soaked river.

One with eyes like frost.

One with fire in his veins.

And one that never turned around.

When I reached for them, they vanished.

But the voice remained.

"Stormveil remembers what you forgot."

I woke with a start.

And the pendant was gone.