She left quietly, the same way she'd arrived. As if she wasn't trying to take anyone's attention with her, and somehow taking all of mine anyway. I wanted to walk her home but I couldn't. Word could get to Tara. "Fuck".
I stayed by the doorway, cigarette between my fingers, though I'd forgotten to actually smoke it. The night air brushed past as she stepped outside, and for a moment her scent drifted with it warm and clean, a little sweet from whatever lotion she used. Lightly threaded with the faint sharpness of nerves.
Not perfume.
Not anything she meant to leave behind.
Just her.
I caught the trace of it without trying, the way my senses always did with things they found interesting. And that was the problem she shouldn't have been interesting. Not to me. Not like that.
She took a breath, letting the cool air steady her, and something about that small, simple gesture tugged at me quiet, unintentional, painfully human.
I watched her walk down the steps, her shadow stretching long on the pavement before folding into the night. She didn't look back. She didn't need to. The ghost of her scent lingered a moment longer, soft around the edges, already fading.
I told myself it was nothing.
Just heightened senses, nothing more.
But the truth was quieter, harder to ignore.
I was going to remember it.
Her.
The way she slipped through the noise of the room like she didn't belong to any of it.
Slow burn or not, something had shifted — subtle, inconvenient, and far too early.
I stayed outside until her presence finally lifted from the air, and even then, I wasn't sure what exactly I was waiting for.
Or why it unsettled me that she was gone.
The scent of her still clung to my clothes. Warm spice. Soft sweetness. A spark of something I could not place. It curled through my lungs and dragged my heartbeat into a pace that was not my own.
Mate bond.
I had heard about it all my life. Prepared for it in the way children prepare for distant storms, certain they will not come.
Not for me.
Not when my future had already been carved and chained by Tara's clan.
But the way her presence hit me felt like a force older than my own blood. Older than the laws we lived under. It shook me clean to the bone.
I forced myself upright, dragging a hand through my hair. My palms were unsteady. My breath felt too thin. I needed answers or at least someone who would not think I had completely lost my mind. Someone who knew me before all the politics and promises and chains.
Bron.
Before the doubt could settle, I turned and shoved the door open again. The heat and noise of the party rushed at me, but everything sounded muffled, distant. Bodies moved. Music thumped. Voices overlapped. None of it touched me.
I walked deeper inside, scanning for him. Bron was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed, talking to two pack-mates. His eyes slid to me the moment he sensed something off. He always knew before I spoke.
I motioned with my head. He stiffened and nodded once.
"Give us a minute," he said to the others, then followed me out the side exit without a question.
We walked in silence at first, fast and purposeful. The night air wrapped around us, cool and sharp. The further we moved away from the building, the safer it felt. Out here the trees swallowed sound, and the old magic of the land thickened like fog.
When we were certain no ears trailed behind us, Bron grabbed my arm.
"Karros. Stop. What is going on? You look like you just saw the moon split in half."
I swallowed hard. My throat was tight.
"It is Zuri," I said quietly.
Bron blinked. Once. Twice. "That new girl? The one Zeta brought here tonight?"
I nodded.
He frowned. "What about her?"
I struggled to find a word that did not feel too big or too dangerous. Too irreversible.
"Something happened," I managed. "Something I cannot make sense of yet. Something I should not be capable of with anyone."
Bron stepped back, eyes narrowing with sudden understanding. "Karros. Say it."
"I think…" My voice faltered, which made him tense even more. "I think she might be my mate."
Bron swore under his breath, the kind of curse that tasted like disbelief and fear blended together. He paced two steps away, ran a hand across his jaw, then turned sharply.
"Are you certain?"
"No. But every instinct in me reacted like it knew her before I did. Like something inside me woke up when she walked in. The way the bond pulled… Bron, it felt alive. It felt real."
He exhaled slowly. "This is not good."
"I know."
"Tara's clan will not accept this. You are betrothed. They will see this as treachery."
"I know."
"And Tara herself… if she finds out…"
I looked away. The mention of her name already felt like a weight I could not carry. She had never been cruel, not openly, but she belonged to a world built on strategy and power. There was nothing gentle about the arrangement between our families. It was an alliance carved long before I had the right to choose anything.
And none of that mattered anymore. Not after tonight.
Bron stepped closer. "Tell me exactly what you felt."
I drew a shaky breath and let the memory replay.
"Her scent hit me before she even spoke. It was like the world sharpened. My pulse reacted on its own. When she looked at me, it felt like something ancient dragged our souls closer. I could not pull away. I did not want to." I paused, fists clenching. "It felt like the universe reached inside my chest and rewired everything. Like my body had been waiting for her without my permission."
Bron's expression darkened, not with anger but with gravity. "That sounds like a mate bond." His eyes flickered with concern. "Karros, this is the worst possible timing."
"I know that too."
We both stood in silence for several seconds. The forest hummed quietly around us, the night animals shifting through the grass. A cold breeze brushed against my overheated skin, but it did nothing to cool the storm swirling inside me.
Bron finally spoke again. "What are you going to do?"
I looked up at the sky, which was dark and heavy with clouds. My voice came out low and raw.
"I do not know."
He waited, and the truth tore out of me before I could stop it. "We just might be able to get our liberation or we are entirely doomed. I do not think I am strong enough to resist her if she is truly my mate bond. I never thought it would be this consuming Bron. I am in trouble. I feel lost."
The confession hung in the air between us, vibrating with the weight of something bigger than either of us dared name.
Bron's jaw tightened. He looked at me like a brother would look at another brother standing at the edge of a cliff.
"Karros. You cannot tell anyone else. Not yet. Not until we figure out what this means. Tara's clan has eyes everywhere. If they even suspect that a bond like this has formed, they will not hesitate to intervene."
"I know." My voice felt too soft, too human. "I just… needed to say it to someone."
"And you chose me."
"You are the only one I trust."
His expression softened, barely. "I am with you. Whatever this becomes."
We stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the trees. The gravity of it settled deeper. A mate bond meant fate. Destiny. Magic older than our packs. A bond that could strengthen a leader or destroy an entire bloodline.
For me it meant war.
War with myself.
War with the expectations wrapped around my future.
War with Tara's clan.
Bron sighed. "So what now?"
I closed my eyes and let Zuri's laugh echo in my memory. The sound had already carved itself into me. It was terrifying.
"I need to stay away," I whispered.
Bron made a low skeptical sound. "Can you?"
My chest tightened. "No."
"Then you are already in deeper trouble than you think."
I knew he was right.
Because somewhere in the back of my mind, beyond fear and duty and the threat of Tara, her presence still pulsed like a second heartbeat. A quiet whisper beneath my skin.
A call.
A pull.
A destiny I never asked for.
And as the wind rustled the trees around us, I felt the truth settle inside me like a vow.
Whatever Zuri was to me, whatever danger this bond brought, whatever battles waited ahead…
This was only the beginning.