Night Wolf power was not loud.
That was the first lie Nyss corrected.
Riven stood in the clearing with his fists clenched with dark lunar energy leaking from his skin like smoke that refuse to rise.
The moment Riven let go
the darkness lunged.
It wasn't gradual. It wasn't subtle.
One breath he was standing in the clearing, fists clenched, heart pounding in a controlled rhythm. The next, his lunar core howled, cracks blazing crimson-black as berserker rage surged like a tidal wave breaking through a dam.
The ground shattered beneath his feet.
Riven roared.
His spine arched as shadow poured from his skin, claws extending far past what they should have, eyes burning with feral red light. The night recoiled. Trees bent away from him as if afraid.
Nyss didn't step back.
"Riven," she snapped, voice sharp as a blade. "Listen to me."
He couldn't.
The rage was louder than thought images flashing through his mind: enemies broken, blood in moonlight, the need to tear until nothing moved.
His body moved on instinct.
He lunged.
Nyss's eyes flashed silver.
CLINK.
Lunar chains burst from her core, wrapping around Riven's arms, chest, and throat in a blink cold, radiant, and anchored. The impact skidded him across the dirt, carving a trench before the chains locked him in place.
Riven snarled, muscles bulging, darkness thrashing against the bindings.
"Breathe," Nyss commanded, stepping closer despite the killing aura pouring off him. "Not like a wolf. Like you."
The chains tightened not crushing, but grounding. Each link hummed with Nyss's presence, her will threading through the rage.
"Count," she said. "Now."
Riven shook violently.
"…One."
The haze flickered.
"Two."
The roar dulled.
"Three."
The darkness stalled hesitating, confused.
Nyss placed her hand against his chest, right over his core.
"You're not alone," she said quietly. "You don't have to destroy everything to exist."
Something inside him broke not the core, but the belief feeding it.
Riven gasped.
The shadows snapped back like startled beasts, claws retracting, aura collapsing inward until only steam rose from his skin. He dropped to his knees, chains dissolving into moonlight as Nyss caught him before he fell.
Silence returned to the forest.
Riven laughed weakly. "Okay… that was definitely worse than last time."
Nyss huffed. "You almost tore the clearing in half."
"Progress?"
She rolled her eyes but there was relief there.
"Get up," she said. "We're not done."
They ran.
Not away but through the forest.
Riven pushed his speed, feet barely touching the ground as he leapt from root to rock to trunk. Nyss stayed ahead effortlessly, darting up trees, across branches, forcing him to adapt.
His reflexes sharpened.
He caught falling leaves mid-air.
Twisted around snapping branches without slowing.
Leapt tree to tree, learning to feel momentum instead of fighting it.
For a moment, he forgot the darkness.
Then
"Whoa!"
Riven's foot slipped on slick moss mid-leap. His balance vanished, arms flailing as gravity reclaimed him.
He crashed straight into a cold mountain stream with a splash loud enough to scare half the forest.
"Fantastic," he groaned, floating face-up. "Absolutely dignified."
Laughter rang out above him.
Real laughter.
Riven blinked and looked up.
Nyss sat on a tree branch overhead, legs dangling, one hand gripping the bark as moonlight poured over her. Her head was thrown back, silver eyes bright, smile wide and unguarded.
He froze.
He had never seen her like that.
Not the princess. Not the ascended wolf. Not Selene's daughter.
Just… Nyss.
Beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with power.
Something in his chest stirred.
His lunar core glowed but not dark, not violent.
Warm.
Soft.
Different.
Riven sat up slowly, water dripping from his hair as fog began to roll in around the stream, curling between trees like breath.
Nyss's laughter faded as she met his gaze.
"…Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
Riven swallowed. "I—uh because you're laughing."
Her ears twitched. "That's a terrible reason."
"Yeah," he admitted. "But it's the honest one."
The fog thickened.
The air shifted.
They didn't know but their bonds began to thicken and yes their future as fated mates began to take shape.