When the Bond Snapped
The council hall fell silent.
Not the calm kind.
The kind that followed disaster.
For a single breath, no one spoke. The laughter that had filled the room only moments ago died in their throats, replaced by something sharp and wrong. The torches along the stone walls flickered, their flames bending as if a cold wind had passed through the hall, even though every door and window remained shut.
The Alpha twins were the first to feel it.
Kael's hand tightened around the armrest of his chair. His chest constricted, a sudden pressure crushing down on his lungs as if something inside him had been ripped away without warning.
"Did you feel that?" he demanded.
Across the table, his twin brother Rael had already risen to his feet. His eyes burned gold, his wolf pushing hard against his skin, restless and agitated.
"Yes," Rael said grimly. "The bond."
The word sent a ripple of unease through the council.
Impossible.
That bond had existed since birth. A human girl, weak and silent, tied to the pack by fate and blood. A burden they had never wanted but had always assumed would remain where she belonged.
Kael clenched his jaw. "It didn't weaken," he said. "It snapped."
A chair scraped loudly against the floor as Elias, the future Beta, stood up. His usually composed expression was gone, replaced by something dangerously close to panic.
"That can't happen," Elias said. "Not unless she…"
He stopped himself.
Unless she had gone to the Moon Temple.
A low growl rolled through the hall. Several Gamma warriors shifted uneasily, instinctively stepping back. The Moon Temple was sacred. Forbidden. A place no one went unless they were prepared to give up everything.
Rael turned sharply toward the entrance. "Where is she?"
No one answered.
The realization settled like ice in their veins.
"She heard us," Kael said slowly.
The memory struck him with brutal clarity. The half closed door. The way the air had felt too still. He had assumed she was cowering somewhere, as she always did.
Not listening.
Elias's face drained of color. "How much did she hear?"
Silence answered him.
The torches flared again, and this time the scent hit them all at once.
Blood.
Not the metallic tang of injury or battle. This was sharper. Older. It carried the weight of ritual and sacrifice.
Rael's eyes widened. "The temple."
Before anyone could stop him, he was already moving.
The Moon Temple stood at the edge of the territory, carved directly into pale stone that glowed faintly under the night sky. The closer they came, the stronger the scent grew, mixing with something else that made every wolf's instincts scream.
Power.
Kael slowed as they reached the entrance. The massive doors stood open.
"That's not possible," one of the Gammas whispered. "No one opens those doors without permission."
Rael stepped inside.
The air was heavy, thick with divine pressure. Moonlight poured down through the open ceiling, illuminating the altar at the center of the chamber.
And the blood.
It stained the stone floor in a dark, deliberate pattern.
Elias swallowed hard. "She really did it."
"She severed the bond," Kael said. His voice came out rougher than he intended.
A sudden wave of heat surged through the room.
Every wolf dropped to one knee.
Not by choice.
Kael gritted his teeth as his body obeyed an instinct older than the pack itself. His wolf howled inside him, not in defiance but in recognition.
Rael's breath hitched. "Do you feel that?"
"Yes," Elias whispered. "The Moon Goddess."
The light intensified, and for a brief moment, the world seemed to hold its breath.
Then it vanished.
The pressure lifted. The temple fell silent once more.
One of the Gamma warriors laughed nervously. "So that's it? She's gone? The bond is broken?"
Kael stood slowly. His chest ached in a way that had nothing to do with magic. He stared at the bloodstained altar, at the place where a girl they had dismissed had stood alone and chosen exile over them.
"No," he said. "This isn't the end."
Rael turned to him sharply. "What do you mean?"
Kael inhaled deeply.
There it was again.
Faint. Elusive.
A scent that made his pulse spike and his wolf strain against his control.
White.
Pure. Ancient.
His eyes widened. "She didn't just leave."
Elias froze. "Kael…"
"She awakened," Kael finished.
The words fell into the temple like a curse.
A low, reverent silence followed.
"That's a myth," one of the elders said weakly. "The white lineage vanished generations ago."
Rael shook his head, his expression unreadable. "No. I feel it too."
His hands trembled slightly at his sides, not with fear, but with something far more dangerous.
Longing.
Elias exhaled slowly. "If she is what you think she is…"
"She doesn't belong to us anymore," Kael said.
The realization tasted bitter.
A sharp laugh echoed from the shadows near the entrance.
All heads snapped toward the sound.
A lone figure stepped into the moonlight, his presence calm where the others were shaken. His dark eyes lingered on the altar, then lifted to meet Kael's gaze.
"So," he said quietly, "the White Luna has returned."
Kael's heart skipped.
"Who are you?" Rael demanded.
The man smiled faintly. "Someone who has been waiting."
Without another word, he turned and disappeared back into the night, leaving behind a single truth none of them could deny.
Aurelia was gone.
And she was no longer prey.
She was the beginning of a war they were not ready for.
The silence he left behind was worse than any howl.
Rael's claws dug into his palms. "Waiting for what?" he snarled. "Explain yourself!"
But the night swallowed the stranger whole, his scent fading too quickly to track. It was as if the forest itself had chosen to protect him.
Elias looked shaken. "That man… he wasn't pack."
"No," Kael agreed. "But he knew."
The realization settled heavily among them. Whatever Aurelia had become, the world beyond their territory was already aware.
A deep tremor rolled through the ground beneath their feet.
This time, it was not subtle.
The moonlight above the altar flared violently, forcing every wolf to bow again as a voice echoed through the temple. It was neither loud nor gentle, yet it filled every corner of their minds.
You cast her aside.
The elders gasped. One of them collapsed completely, forehead pressed to the cold stone.
You broke what was entrusted to you.
Rael's throat tightened. "Great Goddess," he said hoarsely. "We—"
Silence.
The single word cut sharper than a blade.
She came to me bleeding. Alone. Unwanted.
Kael felt something fracture inside his chest.
And she chose herself.
The pressure intensified, crushing, unforgiving.
From this night onward, she walks a path none of you may command.
The moonlight dimmed.
But the voice did not vanish completely.
Those bound to her by fate will follow. Whether they deserve her… will be decided.
Then the presence was gone.
No blessing.
No forgiveness.
Only judgment.
For a long moment, no one moved.
A Gamma warrior finally broke the silence, his voice trembling. "Bound by fate… does that mean—"
"Yes," Elias said quietly.
He straightened, his usual composure returning in a colder, sharper form. "It means she has mates."
Rael's head snapped up. "Plural?"
Elias didn't answer immediately. His gaze drifted toward the forest, to the path Aurelia must have taken.
"More than one," he said at last.
Kael closed his eyes.
A bitter smile curved his lips. "And we were fools enough to think she would stay broken."
His wolf stirred, restless, drawn by something it could no longer reach but could never forget.
"She's running," Rael said suddenly.
Kael opened his eyes. "Yes."
"But not away from us," Rael continued, voice low and dangerous. "Toward something."
The thought sent a pulse of heat through Kael's veins.
Toward her awakening.
Toward her power.
Toward the men fate would place in her path.
Kael turned toward the forest, his jaw set.
"Prepare the trackers," he ordered. "Not to drag her back."
Rael looked at him sharply.
"To follow," Kael corrected. "And to kneel… if fate demands it."
Because somewhere out there, under the same moon that had condemned them, Aurelia was no longer a forgotten human girl.
She was becoming something the world would soon learn to fear.