The night bled red across the horizon.
Mist crept between the trees, pooling low, heavy with the scent of iron and magic. Every shadow looked alive; every whisper carried weight.
The Blood Moon had risen.
Kian stood at the ridge overlooking the forest, his eyes burning in the moonlight. The mark on his wrist glowed faintly beneath his glove — the same gold that haunted his dreams. It pulsed in rhythm with something distant, something alive.
He could feel her again.
Lyra.
The name was no longer a ghost in his mind. It was a heartbeat, steady and sure, calling him forward like a tether made of flame and memory.
Aiden stepped beside him, wind tugging at his cloak. "You've felt it since the veil broke. Now it's worse."
Kian didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the valley below — where silver fog coiled around the trees like restless smoke. "She's beneath the moon tonight. I can feel her. The bond's not just alive — it's awake."
Aiden looked uneasy. "And the others?"
"They're moving too," Kian murmured. "The hunters won't wait long."
He started down the slope, boots silent on the moss, and for the first time in years, he wasn't running from the pull. He was running toward it.
Elsewhere in the forest…
Lyra crouched in the hollow of an ancient oak, the golden shard pressed to her chest. Her pulse thudded beneath her fingertips, matching the shard's rhythm beat for beat.
Each breath came with a rush of energy — wild, electric, and frighteningly powerful. The air around her shimmered faintly, bending with each exhale. She had barely escaped the hunters; two still hunted nearby, their presence heavy as stormclouds.
The forest was quiet now, listening.
She whispered into the stillness, "I didn't mean to call the moon."
But she had.
When her power broke the veil, it didn't just open a door — it called everything that had ever recognized her name. Including the Blood Moon, ancient and sentient, the same celestial force that once blessed their kind…and cursed them.
Now its light glowed red through the branches, spilling across her skin like a warning.
Lyra pressed her hand into the dirt to steady herself — and the ground trembled. Roots twisted toward her touch, answering her magic as if they'd been waiting centuries for her to wake.
She gasped softly, pulling back. "Stop… please…"
But the forest was no longer hers to command. It moved with her heartbeat — and her heartbeat was no longer hers alone.
Kian stopped in the clearing below. His breath came shallow, sharp with recognition.
"She's here," he whispered.
The world around him shifted — trees bending, wind circling like it knew what he sought. His senses sharpened until he could feel every vibration in the earth.
Then he heard it.
Not words — a sound. A single, unsteady breath, soft and human and heartbreakingly familiar.
He froze. The forest seemed to vanish.
For one impossible second, time stilled. He could almost see her — a flicker between light and shadow, gold and red, the faint outline of a figure kneeling beneath the ancient oak.
"Lyra…"
The name left his lips like a prayer.
Her head lifted sharply — she'd heard.
For the briefest moment, their eyes met through the mist — his dark, hers glowing faintly gold — and the tether between them surged, bursting alive in both their chests.
The air snapped.
Wind roared through the trees.
The Blood Moon pulsed brighter, and the veil between realms quivered like glass under strain.
Lyra staggered backward, clutching her heart. "No—no, not yet—"
"Kian!"
Her voice shattered the air, raw and real.
And just like that — the hunters found her.
Figures emerged from the mist, masks glinting under moonlight. The first drew his blade, its edge black and cold as night.
Kian's growl tore through the valley before the blade could fall.
He moved — fast, too fast for mortal eyes. The next second, he was between them, his claws out, his eyes burning gold.
The forest exploded into motion.
Magic and steel collided beneath the red moon as the forgotten bond rekindled in a storm of fury and light.
And in that chaos, Lyra looked up through the haze — and saw him clearly for the first time.
Her heart broke open.
Kian. Her Alpha. Her curse. Her home.
He turned toward her, blood and moonlight painting his face. "I found you."
The moment held — one heartbeat suspended in eternity — before another hunter's arrow whistled through the air.
It struck the ground between them, pulsing with dark runes. The light from the bond flickered.
Lyra screamed, "No!"
The ground split apart. The world folded inward.
And before she could reach him — the veil swallowed her again.