Chapter Four

“What the hell does that mean?” I stepped toward him, ignoring his warning. “Mate bond? What is that?”

Thorne’s jaw clenched. “It’s not important right now. We have more pressing matters—”

“Not important?” The words came out sharper than I intended. “You just kissed me like—like that, and then jerked away saying some bond was activated between us, and now you’re telling me it’s not important?”

Thorne opened his mind, and closed again as if looking for the best explanation to give me.

But at that moment something clicked in my mind that made my heart stop.

Werewolves…years ago I have been so obsessed with reading paranormal romance and now…

Of course I thought it was all fiction, but with everything that has happened to me within the last 24 hours…

I shook my head as my mind went back to the stories. I have read about the Mate bond in almost all the novels.

“Wait.” My stomach dropped. “In the books I read, mate bonds meant—it means we’re bound together. For life. That you’re supposed to be my…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. “Oh god. Is that real? Are we—”

“Elara, breathe.”

“I can’t breathe!” My voice climbed higher. “I just found out werewolves are real, that I’m apparently one of them, and now you’re saying we’re magically bound together forever? I don’t even know you! I don’t know your last name or where you’re from or—”

“Elara.” He grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Breathe. You’re panicking, and I need you, calm.”

I sucked in air, focusing on the steady pressure of his hands. 

“Better?” he asked.

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

He released me, stepping back. “Good. Now listen. I know this is overwhelming, but we need to move. You’re not safe here.”

“Not safe from what?” I pulled his jacket tighter. “What the hell is going on? How did you even find me?”

Thorne ran a hand through his hair, that gesture I was starting to recognize as frustration. “You bonded with your wolf tonight. Fully. That kind of awakening sends out a signal—magical, unmistakable. Your family has been searching for you for nineteen years, Elara. They have a globe, enchanted by the Moon Goddess herself, that alerts them when any royal wolf bonds for the first time.”

“Royal?” The word felt foreign. “I’m not—”

“You are.” His voice was gentle now, patient. “You’re Princess Elara Silvermoon. Daughter of Queen Isolde, sister to the Alpha heir. You were taken as a baby, hidden in the human world with your wolf suppressed.”

My legs went weak and I sat hard in the grass. “That’s insane.”

“It’s the truth.” He crouched beside me. “Tonight, when you shifted, when your wolf fully emerged, the globe activated. That’s how I found you. I’m the pack’s Beta—second in command. Your brothers sent me to bring you home.”

Brothers. Family. 

It all sounded like he was talking about someone else.

“My parents,” I whispered. “Tom and Sarah—”

“Are safe.” Thorne’s expression softened. “And they’ll stay safe as long as you’re not near them. Right now, you have zero control over your wolf. What if you’d shifted at home? What if you’d hurt them?”

The image was enough to shut me up.My claws ripping through Tom’s throat the way they’d torn through Theo’s. Sarah’s blood on my hands.

I shuddered.

“No.” I pressed my palms against my eyes. “I would never—”

“Not intentionally. But your wolf is new, unpredictable. The heat you’ve been feeling? That was her trying to break free. If you’d stayed in that cell much longer, if the moon had gotten any higher…” He didn’t finish. Didn’t need to.

I lowered my hands. “So what happens now?”

“Now?” Thorne stood, offering his hand. “I will take you home. To your real home. Where you can learn what you are, who you are. Where your family has been waiting nineteen years for you to return.”

I stared at his outstretched hand. Everything in me screamed this was crazy, impossible, too much too fast. But what choice did I have? I’d killed someone tonight. Transformed into a wolf. Discovered I was apparently royalty in a world I didn’t know existed.

Going back to Tom and Sarah’s tiny apartment, pretending to be normal, wasn’t an option anymore.

I took his hand.

He pulled me up, then raised his other hand. The air shimmered, tearing open like fabric. Through the rip, I glimpsed towering trees and moonlit paths.

“A portal?” My voice came out strangled.

“Magic is real too.” A hint of amusement touched his expression. “Try to keep up, princess.”

He stepped through, pulling me with him.

-----

The world reformed around us—massive gates wrought from silver and iron, intricate wolf designs carved into every surface. 

Beyond them sprawled an entire community that shouldn’t exist. Houses ranging from modest cottages to sprawling mansions. People walking cobblestone streets in modern clothes. And wolves—actual wolves—running alongside children who laughed and played like this was completely normal.

“This is impossible,” I breathed.

“This is Silverwood.” Thorne shifted back to human form so smoothly I almost missed it, suddenly dressed in dark pants and a shirt that definitely hadn’t been there before. He took my hand. “Your home.”

We walked through the gates together.

The moment we crossed the threshold, everything stopped. Conversations died mid-sentence. People froze, staring at us. A woman dropped her basket, vegetables rolling across the stones.

“The princess,” someone whispered.

“She’s back,” another voice carried. “Thank the Moon Goddess.”

“After all these years…”

People bowed, some with tears streaming down their faces. I wanted to tell them they had the wrong person, that I was nobody, but Thorne’s grip on my hand kept me moving forward.

We approached a property that made the others look like guest houses—a mansion of pale stone and soaring windows, surrounded by manicured gardens. Guards stood at attention, armor gleaming.

“Beta Blackwood,” one said, bowing. Then his gaze found me. “Princess Elara. Welcome home.”

Princess Elara. The sound of it was so strange and bizarre but before I could think of a suitable response, the mansion’s doors burst open.

A woman emerged, maybe sixty, with silver threading through auburn hair that matched mine. She wore an elegant dress, carried herself like someone used to being obeyed, but the moment her eyes found me, she crumbled.

“My baby.” She ran, actually ran, closing the distance between us. “My baby girl. You’re alive. You’re finally home.”

She pulled me into an embrace, holding me tight with her entire frame shaking as shge sobbed into my shoulder.

Two young men followed her—tall, handsome in that devastating way that would’ve made me stammer in high school. 

Though my mind noted, with strange satisfaction, that neither was as attractive as Thorne.

“Let her breathe, Mother.” The older one spoke gently, pulling the woman back. He had blond hair and warm brown eyes that studied me so closely as if scared that I might disappear.“She’s been through enough tonight.”

He turned to Thorne, gripping his shoulder. “Thank you for bringing her home.”

“Alpha Aiden,” Thorne acknowledged with a slight bow. “Luna Isolde.”

So the woman was my mother. The queen. And this man was my brother. The Alpha.

My head spun.

“Are you hurt?” The woman—Luna Isolde, my mother—cupped my face, searching for injuries. “Hungry? When did you last eat?”

“Prepare a bath!” the younger brother shouted toward the mansion. “And food! The princess needs—”

“I don’t understand.” The words tumbled out, before I could stop them, “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Everything was just too much…happening too soon and it was all so overwhelming I felt like I would collapse from the weight of it all.

Thorne’s hand found my shoulder, and when I turned to him, he gave mea small smile, “These people are your family. You’re safe.”

“We’ll explain everything,” Aiden promised. “But first, let’s get you inside. Get you warm and fed.”

The younger brother—Liam, I remembered Thorne mentioning—grinned despite the tears on his face. “We have nineteen years of stories to catch up on, little sister.”

They ushered me toward the mansion, each of them speaking over the other, and inlet them guide me, too nub to resist.  

“Elara.”

Thorne’s voice stopped me at the threshold. The others continued inside, perhaps not noticing that I even stopped.

He pulled me aside with a tight expression, “We need to keep the mate bond secret. No one can know, not your mother and most especially not your brothers.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because your family just got you back after nineteen years. Because you’re a princess and I’m just a Beta. I am your brothers’ best friend and…this isn’t right. Because everything is complicated enough without adding—” He gestured between us. “This.”

Just a Beta. 

“Fine,” I said, pulling away from his touch. “Whatever.”

“At the next full moon.” He caught my wrist gently. “We will reject the mate bond completely. Because this is like a taboo that cannot happen.”