Chapter 3 The Mark Beneath Her Skin

Elara's POV

The air in Mira cottage crackled like it was holding its breath.

Elara stood frozen near the door, her palm still tingling from where it had touched Kalen's fevered skin.

He lay on the cot, his chest rising and falling in shallow gasps, the strange black spiral on his chest pulsing dimly.

Mira worked fast, grinding dried moonwort into a paste with shaking hands.

She had not looked at Elara once, not since dragging them both inside.

Her silence said more than words ever could.

You know him, Elara said at last. Mira's jaw clenched.

I know what he is, That is not what I asked. That is the answer.

Elara took a shaky breath. He is not just some rogue, is he?

No.

Mira said, with a low voice.

His Thorne.

Elara blinked. Like... the cursed pack? But they weren't cursed when I knew them." He stunned her.

You knew his pack?

Mira ignored the question, dabbing the paste over Kalen's mark. The spiral hissed like a living thing.

He groaned in pain.

His body jerked once, then he went still and ask

Will he die?

Elara whispered. Mira did not answer.

Elara stepped closer, heart pounding. Why didn't you tell me there were others like me out there?

That there were wolves beyond the ridge?

Because I raised you to live, Elara, Mira said sharply. Not to chase legends.

And certainly not to bond with a cursed alpha.

The words hit hard.

I did not choose this,

Elara said.

Mira's eyes finally met hers.

Fate always asks if you're ready after it's already begun.

Elara didn't know how to respond.

The silence pressed in again, heavy and strange.

Kalen's breathing steadied.

The glow beneath his skin dimmed. Whatever Mira had done, it was working.

But the burn in Elara's chest had not faded. If anything he had grown worse.

She press his hand to her collarbone, where a dull ache had bloomed since the forest. When she touched it, her fingers brushed something warm.

Smooth. She pulled her tunic down slightly and gasped.

A faint crescent-shaped mark, pale silver, shimmered on her skin, right above her heart. "I have a mark too," she whispered.

Mira's eyes widened.

For the first time that night, she looked afraid.

When did it appear?

I don't know, Elara said. "I felt something in the forest. When I touched him".

Of course,

Mira muttered.

She walked on the shelf and took down a tattered, leather-bound book. When she open it, the page crackled with age.

She flip to a page near the middle and turned the book so Elara could see.

A sketch. A silver crescent. A dark spiral with two marks, intertwined like twin stars. "The Moonbrand.

The bond awakened it.

What is it? Mira stood.

Mira said. "The curse mark and the mate mark".

The oldest kind of bond. Rare. Dangerous." Elara touched the crescent again. "What does it mean?

It means your fates are sealed, Mira said grimly. Your magic is tied to his. His curse is now your burden.

Elara stared at her, heart racing. "So... I'm cursed now?"

No, Mira said.

You have open a doors that can't be closed. Outside. A howl pierced the night.

Kalen sat up in the cot with a growl.

They are close, he said through gritted teeth.

Elara looked toward the door. "We have to go."

No, Mira snapped.

They are not after you, Elara. Yes, they are,

Kalen said darkly.

The second I touched her, she became a threat to them too.

Mira stepped between them.

You are not taking her.

I am not taking her anywhere, Kalen said.

But she is bound to me now. They will use that as they always do. Elara's stomach churned.

Who are they?

Ironfang wolves, Kalen said. Bounty pack. Mercenaries. They hunt down wolves like me, cursed, rogue, inconvenient.

Elara swallowed.

And like me? Kalen nodded. Mira stepped back, as if the truth weighed too heavily.

Elara's.

Slowly. She said, there is something you should know "before she could finished, the cottage windows shattered".

Three figures burst through the door in a blur of snarls and claws, armor glinting, eyes glowing, fangs bared.

Ironfangs.

Kalen roared, launching off the cot in a blur of muscle and fury.

He tackled the first hunter into the wall.

The wood cracked, bones too. The second lunged for Elara.

Mira stepped in front of her, staff raised.

A flash green of light flared, and the wolf screamed, flying backward into a pile of crates.

The third, larger than the rest, bared his teeth at Elara.

She smells like moonblood, he growled. She is the girl.

Elara's pulse thundered. She stepped back, The wolf pounced, and a wall of flame exploded between them.

Mira.

Chanting, arms raised,magic rippling around her.

Kalen landed beside Elara, blood on his hands, panting hard.

Run, he said.

Now. Elara hesitated.

Mira.

I will hold them, the healer barked. Go!

Kalen grabbed her arm, and they fled through the back door into the freezing forest night, boots crunching snow and ash.

Behind them, the sound of fighting echoed like war drums.

Elara's legs burned. Her heart pounded.

Her life, whatever it had been, was over.

The silver light throbbed more intensely with each heartbeat, creating shadows over the snarling wolves, halted in their attack. From the fractured ground, roots curled upward, resembling claws, like symbols, encircling my ankles, yet not to injure.

They recognized me.

Kalen stepped closer, his wolf form hesitant, unsure.

"You've awakened it," he murmured.

"What is it?"

A whisper answered from the roots, not words, but a memory. A name buried in my blood.

The hunters retreated, terrified.

Kalen didn't move. "Elara... what are you?"

I opened my mouth to speak,

And the ground split wide beneath us.

We were falling. Together. Into the dark.

As they reach the edge of the ridge, the wind shifted from the valley below, a dozen golden eyes glinted in the darkness. A new pack. Watching.

Waiting.

And Elara heard a voice in her mind that wasn't hers.

"Come to us, moonborn."