They didn't stop until dawn bled pink across the sky.
Kael led her through hidden trails only wolves knew narrow paths that twisted between ancient pines, over moss-slick rocks that gleamed treacherously in the moonlight, under the colossal uprooted trunks of fallen giants whose root-walls loomed like the ribs of buried monsters. Waterfalls crashed nearby, their roar a constant, furious warning that drowned out every other sound. Lyra's legs burned with a deep, grinding ache; her calves cramped, her thighs trembled with every uphill step. Sweat stung her eyes and plastered her shirt to her back. Yet she couldn't stop. The bond wouldn't let her. Every time her pace faltered even for a single ragged breath the whispers surged inside her skull, sharp and insistent, a thousand voices murmuring at once: Forward. Closer. To him. The pull was physical, a tether wrapped around her ribs, tugging until she moved again.
They reached a sheltered overhang high on the ridge just as the first pale light touched the valley below. Fog lay thick over the trees like a living shroud, swallowing the world beneath them. A natural cave mouth yawned at their backs, cool and shadowed, smelling faintly of damp stone and old pine needles. Kael released her wrist as though the contact burned him, his fingers flexing once before he stepped away.
"Stay here," he said, voice low and edged. "Don't move. Don't speak. Don't breathe too loudly."
Lyra rubbed the place where his grip had been. The skin still tingled, warm and strangely alive, as if his touch had left an imprint deeper than flesh. "You think I'm going to sit quietly while you decide my fate?"
Kael turned, eyes flashing amber in the dimness. "You have no idea what you've walked into."
"Then tell me."
He paced the narrow space like a caged predator, boots scraping against stone, shoulders tight with barely leashed tension. "The Shadow Mate bond is not like others. It doesn't bring peace. It brings power and pain. The whispers are its voice. They feed on secrets. Hide one, and they grow louder. Lie, and they drive you mad."
Lyra swallowed, throat dry as dust. "And you think I'm hiding something?"
"I know you are." He stepped closer. Too close. His scent enveloped her pine resin sharp enough to cut, woodsmoke, wild earth after rain. It filled her lungs until she felt dizzy with it. "You smell of shadow magic. Old. Forbidden. Your blood sings to mine in a way it shouldn't."
Lyra's pulse thundered in her ears, loud enough she was sure he could hear it. "My mother… she died when I was small. She never spoke of wolves or magic."
Kael studied her for a long, piercing moment. "Then why are you here?"
"The whispers started three nights ago. They called me to the mountains. I thought I was losing my mind."
He exhaled roughly, the sound almost pained. "You weren't. The bond woke when we were close enough."
Lyra wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold in the tremor that wanted to escape. "So what now? You kill me? Banish me?"
Kael's jaw clenched hard enough that a muscle ticked along the side. "I should. The pack can't know about this. A shadow mate weakens an alpha. Makes him vulnerable. And I have enemies waiting for any crack."
"But you won't," she said softly, the words slipping out before she could stop them.
His eyes met hers. Raw. Haunted. Something flickered there regret, maybe, or hunger he refused to name.
"I already tried to reject it," he admitted, voice low. "The moment I felt it snap. It didn't break."
The whispers stirred again, gentle this time. Almost tender.
He needs you… he fears you… he craves you…
Lyra stepped forward before she could stop herself. Her hand rose, hovering near his chest, close enough to feel the heat radiating off him.
"Don't," Kael warned, voice hoarse.
But he didn't move away.
Her fingertips brushed leather over hard muscle. Heat flared through her like a struck match. The bond hummed, deep and resonant, and shadows curled visibly around their joined hands like living smoke dark tendrils that moved with purpose, wrapping, caressing, claiming.
Kael sucked in a breath. "Lyra…"
Her name on his lips felt like sin dark, velvet, dangerous.
She pulled back, cheeks burning. "This is insane."
"Welcome to my world," he said grimly.
A twig snapped outside the overhang.
Kael shifted in an instant bones cracking, fur rippling until a massive black wolf stood where the man had been. Golden eyes locked on the entrance.
Lyra backed against the wall, heart in her throat.
A smaller wolf slunk into view gray, scarred, eyes gleaming with malice.
Beta. Spy.
The gray wolf shifted human. A lean man with cruel lips. "Alpha. The council waits. They felt… something."
Kael shifted back, naked and unashamed. "Tell them nothing."
The beta's gaze slid to Lyra. "And her?"
"She's leaving," Kael said coldly. "Tonight."
But the whispers laughed.
They both knew she wasn't going anywhere.