Locked in the Dark

She didn't scream when he locked her up. She didn't cry when the silver chains wrapped around her hands. She didn't even panic when the torch went dim and the cold prison cell got dark. Lyra just looked at him. Calm and quiet.

That bothered Kael more than if she had begged him to let her go.

She just watched him like she knew something he didn't. Like she was used to being trapped.

Kael turned the key harder than he needed to. The sound echoed off the stone walls. There was moss growing in the corners. The walls had scratch marks from when he lost control before. It still smelled like old blood.

This place wasn't meant for someone like her. But he couldn't take any chances. Not when he couldn't trust the wolf inside him. Not when he couldn't trust himself.

"You could have warned me," Lyra said quietly. "Before you dragged me down here like I was a criminal."

Kael's gold eyes looked at her. "You disappeared at night. You talked in strange words. You woke up with blood on your hands. What else would I think?"

"Maybe it was just a bad dream," she said. "Or maybe I can see the future."

He didn't say anything.

Her hands pulled a little against the chains. Not trying to escape - just testing how strong they were. He watched her flinch as the silver burned her skin. That proved she was part wolf. The chains showed that much. But not completely wolf.

She didn't smell right. Not like the wild forest smell that came from his people. No. She smelled like storms and old magic. Like the ocean and metal. And something darker that pulled at him.

Kael turned away before she could see it in his eyes.

"You're safe down here," he said, his voice tight.

Lyra laughed, but it wasn't really a laugh. "You mean you're safe."

His jaw got tight.

She was right.

That's what scared him.

---

He walked back and forth for hours. He tried not to listen. But he heard everything. Every time she moved. Every time she breathed hard. Every time she said a name in her sleep. He hated that she was locked under his house like a wild animal, when part of him wanted her closer.

Worse - the wolf inside him wanted her close too. The beast in him didn't growl when she was near.

It watched her. Waited.

Kael's fingers touched the fresh claw marks he'd made in the stone wall. A reminder of who he was. What he turned into. What he'd done.

Every full moon. Everyone he'd ever loved. Killed by his own hands. And yet... she hadn't run away. Even when she knew what he was. Even when she woke up covered in blood she didn't remember spilling.

She asked him to kill her. And he couldn't do it.

---

"Did you come back to make fun of me?" Her voice stopped him.

She was sitting against the far wall now, knees pulled up to her chest, hands still chained but looser. Her eyes glowed a little in the dark - too bright. Too steady.

"I came to make sure you were still alive," he said, staying just outside the bars.

"You say that like you thought I might not be."

Kael didn't answer. The quiet stretched between them. Finally, Lyra said, "Why do you hate me so much?"

Kael blinked. That surprised him.

"I don't hate you."

She tilted her head. "You sure lock me up like you do."

"I'm protecting both of us."

Her mouth opened like she was going to say something. But then she stopped. Looked down at the cuffs on her wrists instead. The silver burned a little, making her skin glow where it touched.

She whispered, "It doesn't even hurt anymore."

Kael's stomach twisted. That wasn't good. "Silver should burn," he said.

"It did. The first time someone used it on me."

He went still.

She looked up slowly. "You think you're the first person to chain me up?"

His hands turned into fists.

"I was ten the first time," she said quietly. "My old pack thought I was cursed. They said I walked in my sleep into the woods and woke up with dead birds around me. They said I talked in strange words. Saw things. I didn't remember any of it. But they said I wasn't natural."

Her voice cracked just once.

"So they locked me in the cellar. Every full moon. Just in case."

Kael's throat got tight.

"I stayed there until I was sixteen," she said. "Until I stopped having dreams and started bleeding. Until the pack leader said I smelled wrong and the fortune teller said I was empty inside."

She looked at him, eyes glowing in the dark.

"I didn't come here to be saved, Kael. I came here because if anyone was going to kill me, I wanted it to be the worst of us."

Kael looked away. But not fast enough. She saw the pain in his eyes. And the anger.

"Don't ever say that again," he growled.

"Say what?"

"That I'm like them."

Lyra blinked, surprised.

"I didn't say—"

"You think I lock you up because I hate you? Because I want to hurt you?" His voice got louder and dangerous. "I do it because I don't trust what's inside me. I do it because I know what I am. And I know what I do when I lose control."

She swallowed hard.

"Then maybe we're the same."

Kael stepped closer to the bars, his voice low.

"Maybe we are."

And there it was again - the pull. Like a rope made of blood and moonlight connecting them. Tension snapped between them like a wire pulled too tight.

"I don't know what you are," he said. "But I can feel it. In your smell. Your blood. Your eyes. You were made for something dark."

"I know," she said.

"I should kill you."

"I know that too."

Kael's hands gripped the bars.

"And yet, I keep coming back."

Lyra stood up slowly, chains dragging behind her. She walked toward the bars until only inches separated them.

"You feel it too, don't you?" she whispered. "This... whatever it is between us."

Kael's voice dropped to a whisper. "That's the problem."

They stood there, breathing each other in, the smell of heat and fear and something far more dangerous mixing between them. Kael wanted to step back.

He didn't.

And Lyra?

She leaned closer. "If you're going to kill me," she said softly, "do it now."

He didn't move.

"I can't," he said.

"Why not?"

He stared at her, eyes burning gold.

"Because I think the moon cursed me twice," he whispered. "First to kill those I love."

"And second?"

He gritted his teeth.

"Second - to love the one who'll destroy me."

From the shadows behind them, a low growl echoes through the prison.

Kael spins around, pulling out his blade. But they're alone. Or so they think. And behind Lyra, the silver chains are melting - dripping to the floor like liquid.