7 - Bonds in the Dark

KAEL POV

Kael stood with his arms crossed in front of the tall window that overlooked the Nightclaw training grounds. Dusk bled into the sky in streaks of purple and orange, casting long shadows over the warriors below. The scent of pine and steel filtered through the open pane, familiar and grounding. But his thoughts weren’t on the drills or the murmurs of his pack.

They were on her. He could still see her, even now. Aria Thorne. Moonfang. Her hair glowing in the dappled light of the forest, eyes focused as she sorted through herbs with a precision born of knowledge and instinct. She moved like someone raised in the wild and the sacred all at once. Unaware of the predator watching her from the trees.

He shouldn’t have been watching her. But he couldn’t stop.

A soft knock pulled him from his thoughts.

"Enter," Kael said without turning.

Elias stepped in, the door shutting with a quiet click behind him. He dropped into the chair opposite Kael's desk without waiting for an invitation.

"You know," Elias said, leaning back, arms folded behind his head. "You’re getting more intense every day. You should try not brooding for once. It might actually make you less terrifying."

Kael gave him a withering look. "If you're here to waste my time, leave."

Elias raised a brow, unfazed. "Relax. I'm not here to talk about your sulking. Well… not entirely."

Kael turned fully to face him, settling against the edge of his desk. "Then what?"

Elias hesitated, just a flicker of tension passing over his usually unreadable face.

"I met someone."

That got Kael's attention. He arched a brow. "You?"

Elias nodded once. "My mate."

A heavy silence followed. Mating bonds weren’t taken lightly in Nightclaw. Kael straightened, arms crossing over his chest again. "Who is she?"

Elias looked out the window now, not quite meeting Kael’s gaze. "It’s not a she. And I’m not telling you who he is."

Kael's jaw tightened. "Why?"

"Because he's from Moonfang."

Silence fell again, this time heavier. Kael's mind reeled.

"You’ve been meeting with someone across the border?" he said slowly, carefully.

Elias nodded. "For a while now. It just… happened. We didn’t mean for it to. But once the bond clicked, there was no going back."

Kael pushed off the desk, pacing to the fireplace that hadn’t been lit in weeks. He braced his hands against the mantel.

"You realize what kind of position this puts you in. What it puts us in."

"I do," Elias said, voice calm. "But I’m not turning away from this. He’s mine. That means something."

Kael didn’t speak right away. He understood the pull, the way the bond clawed beneath the skin. It was both fire and anchor. Irresistible.

Aria…

He shook the thought free, but it lingered like smoke. He could still hear the way her voice had carried through the trees the last time he saw her, humming while gathering herbs, completely unaware of the way she haunted his every waking moment.

Elias spoke again, this time more cautiously. "We talk, you know. He and I."

Kael glanced at him. "Obviously."

Elias leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "He talks about her."

Kael's spine stiffened. "Who?"

"The Moonfang girl. Aria. The one you’ve been watching.They’re close. "

Kael's heart gave a traitorous thud.

Elias’s eyes sharpened. "He told me what she told him. About feeling someone watching her. Someone familiar. Said she dreams about eyes like blue ice water and a presence she can't shake."

Kael didn’t respond. Couldn't. His expression was unreadable, but inside, he was a war zone.

Elias stood. "I'm not going to tell you what to do. But the longer you hover in the shadows, the worse this is going to get."

Kael turned to him, voice low. "She doesn’t know who I am."

"No," Elias agreed. "But she knows something. And she feels it. You think you’re protecting her by keeping your distance, but you're just making her doubt herself."

Kael looked away.

Elias, Kael’s best friend since they were babies, crossed to the door, pausing there.

"You don't have to do anything tonight. But you will, eventually. Because that kind of connection? It doesn’t go away."

Kael stayed silent as Elias left, but his mind was far from quiet. The silence in the room was deafening, filled with memories and tension.

Aria, the Moonfang healer-in-training. He had heard the whispers about her—daughter of the late healer Seraphina, who died saving half her pack in a brutal winter raid. Her father now served as Moonfang’s pack doctor, known for his quiet intelligence and unmatched skill. Aria had inherited both their strengths: Seraphina’s gentle touch and emotional intuition, her father's sharp eye for remedies and anatomy.

She belonged to a lineage of healing and light, while Kael came from shadows and war. And still, she pulled him in like the tide.

He'd seen her enough times to memorize the way she moved through the forest like it was an extension of herself, plucking leaves and roots, muttering their names under her breath. She wasn't just gathering herbs. She was honoring her mother's memory.

And he was dishonoring everything by watching her in secret.

Kael moved to the window again, staring into the deepening night. He didn’t know when things had shifted—when curiosity turned into obsession, when dreams of her became visceral. But Elias’s warning rang clear.

He couldn’t remain a ghost in her life forever.

Something had to give. And when it did, the world they knew might never be the same.

Still, the weight of legacy pressed down on him like stone. He wasn’t just an Alpha. He was the heir of a pack forged in survival, in vengeance. What future could he offer someone like Aria? What would happen if their bond tore open the fragile peace still holding their world together?

He closed his eyes. His next step would shape not only his fate—but hers.

And he wasn’t sure if he was ready.