He collapsed at my feet bleeding, shifting, screaming my name. And I knew, without doubt or mercy... I was going to kill my mate.
"Kaelen!" I dropped to my knees, grabbing his shoulders, but his body convulsed beneath my hands. The mark on his chest glowed brighter crimson and cursed burning like a brand straight from hell.
His claws tore into the earth. His golden eyes flickered, not with power… but with fear.
And still, my magic surged toward him like wildfire chasing kindling.
I couldn't stop it.
The bond had awakened. And it was already killing us.
One hour earlier.
I wasn't supposed to be here.
I was supposed to be preparing for the Equinox rites with the others, lighting sacred candles, chanting empty words under a silver moon. Not walking alone into the ruins of a forgotten war, wearing a stolen cloak and a blade laced with bone ash.
But fate doesn't care what witches are supposed to do.
Because fate had already chosen Kaelen Blackmane.
And through him… it had chosen my ruin.
I saw him before I felt him, which was strangebecause the bond was always the first to arrive.
But this time, it crept in slowly. Like a fever. Like death. Then it snapped.
Kaelen stepped from the mist like a prophecy made flesh. His cloak billowed behind him, boots cracking broken sigils underfoot, moonlight slicing across his face. He was broad, wild, terrifying. A man crafted by gods who forgot mercy.
Alpha.
Cursed.
Mine.
"You came," he said, voice low, dangerous. Tired.
"So did the moon," I whispered. "And she's bleeding for a reason."
He stopped a few feet from me. Close enough to feel the heat rising off my skin. Far enough not to touch. Not yet.
"I shouldn't be here," I added. "You shouldn't have called me."
"I didn't call you, Seraphina."
"Then why am I here?"
His jaw clenched. "Because we're cursed. And fate is cruel."
The silence between us crackled with tension and something worse: recognition.
His eyes burned into mine, golden and ancient. The wolf in him didn't blink. It knew me. It wanted. It warned.
My body answered, helpless against it. My magic stirred like a storm under my ribs, fighting to get out.
"I've tried to resist," Kaelen said quietly. "I shifted for three days straight. I took bloodroot. Burned spell tags into my skin."
"And?"
"I still dreamed of you every night. And every time... you were dying."
My throat tightened. Because I had the same dreams. Only in mine, he was the one dying.
I took a shaky breath. "This bond"
"Isn't sacred," he cut in. "It's poison."
"Then why not break it?"
He looked at me like that question was a blade.
"Because it already broke me."
He unbuttoned his tunic and yanked it open.
My breath caught.
There, across his chest, was a pulsing, glowing rune alive and ancient. Veins of red light spidered out from it, wrapping over his heart like thorns.
My knees weakened.
"That mark," I breathed. "It's from my bloodline. It was used during the First Witch-Wolf War. My ancestor"
"Cursed mine," he finished.
I nodded slowly. "That rune only appears when the bond is fated but forbidden."
"Forbidden?"
"Your line was never meant to mate with mine. If the bond completes…
"I die."
We both stood there, trapped by something older than our bones. My magic flared again, uncoiling in red threads from my palms. His wolf fought beneath his skin.
The bond was pulling. Harder. Faster. Like gravity fueled by desperation.
"You need to leave," he said.
But I couldn't. Not when he looked at me like he didn't know whether to touch me or run.
Not when every cell in my body screamed stay.
So I did the one thing I knew I shouldn't.
I stepped forward.
He mirrored me.
We reached for each other at the same time.
And when our fingers brushed
The bond ignited.
Power exploded between us, violent and unholy. The ground split. The runes beneath our feet flared gold and red. Kaelen screamed, stumbling back.
His body hit the earth hard. He convulsed. The rune on his chest blazed brighter.
"Kaelen!" I rushed to him. "Kaelen, don't"
He writhed, clutching his sides.
My magic was leaking out, drawn toward his curse like a match to oil.
It wasn't helping him. It was feeding the burn.
And then a voice behind me, cool as death.
"Well… that escalated beautifully."
I spun around.
Malric.
He stood casually at the edge of the ruin, robes fluttering, hands behind his back like he hadn't just appeared from thin air.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I snarled.
"Watching," he said, stepping over a cracked altar. "Like any good friend would."
Kaelen tried to rise, growling, but he collapsed again.
Malric smiled.
"Oh dear. It's worse than I thought."
"Leave," I hissed, placing myself between him and Kaelen.
"I will. But I came with a gift first."
He crouched beside Kaelen and smiled down like a vulture admiring a dying lion.
"You triggered the mark," he said softly. "You shouldn't have touched him."
"What are you talking about?"
He looked up at me, voice almost giddy.
"You have forty nights, Seraphina."
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"Until the curse kills him completely," Malric whispered. "The clock started the second you touched him. Tick. Tock."
Kaelen groaned behind me. The rune pulsed again, slower now. Like a dying heartbeat.
"And if I try to break it?"
Malric's smile widened. "Then you die too."
Then he vanished.
Gone. Just like that.
Leaving me with a dying Alpha, a ticking curse, and a bond I didn't understand.
And somewhere deep inside me...
I knew that was only the beginning.