The night was heavy with stormlight. The air shimmered, thick with magic and scent — rain, ash, and wolf blood.
Lyra stood among the ruins, silver light still fading from her hands, her pulse pounding like a war drum. The forest around her had gone completely still. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Then she felt it — the electric hum of another power approaching. Familiar. Painfully familiar.
Her heart stuttered once before she steadied herself.
"He's close," Selene's voice murmured.
Lyra didn't answer. She didn't need to. The bond she'd thought long broken was thrumming again, faint but undeniable. Every nerve in her body tightened.
A shadow stepped out from the trees.
Kian.
He was the same, and not the same at all — still the towering Alpha she remembered, broad-shouldered and commanding, but there was something new in his eyes: a flicker of exhaustion, of haunted memory. His aura rippled with restrained fury, but beneath it, she could feel something raw and unspoken.
"Lyra," he breathed, as if her name hurt to say.
Her jaw tightened. "Alpha."
The word dripped venom.
For a long moment, they simply stared at each other — predator and prey, neither sure which was which. The air between them crackled with invisible energy.
"You're alive," he said finally.
"Disappointed?"
He took a step closer. "I buried you."
Lyra's laugh was soft, bitter. "You buried your guilt. Not me."
He flinched, just slightly. "You don't understand—"
"Oh, I understand perfectly," she cut in, her voice low and shaking with anger. "You rejected me because I was weak. Because I didn't fit your perfect Alpha image. And now you come chasing ghosts."
Kian's eyes darkened. "You think this is about guilt?"
"I don't care what it's about."
Lightning flashed above them, illuminating their faces — both beautiful, both broken. The wind tore through the clearing, carrying the scent of rain and memory.
"You've changed," Kian said finally. His gaze dropped briefly to the faint silver glow still flickering beneath her skin. "You smell like witchcraft."
"Good," Lyra whispered. "That means you'll know what's coming when I burn you down."
Before he could react, her power surged. Silver flames roared across the ground, encircling them both. But Kian didn't back away. He stepped straight through the fire — and for a heartbeat, their bodies were only inches apart.
Lyra's breath hitched. She could feel the heat of him, the pulse of his heartbeat, the faint tremor in his hands. He raised one slowly, hesitantly, as if afraid she'd vanish again.
"Lyra…" His voice cracked. "I thought I killed you."
Her voice trembled, caught between fury and something she didn't want to name. "You did."
Their eyes locked — gold and silver, storm and moonlight. The world seemed to narrow to the space between them.
Then something inside Kian snapped. His wolf surged forward, and his aura flared gold. Lyra's magic rose to meet it. Energy collided between them, raw and blinding. The ground cracked beneath their feet, the runes in the ruins glowing bright once more.
"Two souls bound by one curse," Selene's voice whispered in both their minds.
"What one destroys, the other will feel. What one saves, the other will lose."
The words froze them both.
Kian's hand brushed hers — just a touch — and pain shot through them like lightning. They both gasped, falling to their knees, clutching their chests as the same searing mark bloomed across their skin: a silver crescent surrounded by fire.
"What… is this?" Kian ground out.
Lyra's eyes blazed. "The Blood Moon's price."
When the pain subsided, they were left panting in the rain, inches apart, eyes locked once more.
Kian's expression softened — for the first time, his voice broke. "I never wanted this."
Lyra rose slowly, her gaze hard. "And yet, you caused it."
She turned away, the firelight flickering across her skin like armor.
"Stay away from me, Kian."
He stood, rain dripping from his hair, his voice rough. "You know I can't."
Lightning split the sky again — and in that instant, they both vanished in opposite directions, the forest swallowing them whole.
But the mark on their skin pulsed in unison, glowing faintly through the dark.
They were bound now.
By curse.
By fate.
By the very thing that was supposed to destroy them both.