CHAPTER 3. CHAINS IN CRIMSON

Alina.

I didn't want to get married to the Alpha. I didn't care whether or not I was actually a vessel to destroy worlds. I didn't care if I was the key to the underworld, all I knew was that I wasn't about to give up my freedom for a half-baked story that I wasn't even buying.

So I plotted my escape.

Three days, I would be long gone by then. Or so I thought.

I allowed my senses to calm and attune with nature, I could just make out the back and forth of the soldiers as they came and left the territory.

My escape had to be flawlessly timed but I didn't have that luxury of time. So I waited until the guards were distracted by a caravan returning from the outer villages bringing supplies. My plan had been half-baked at best, but desperation’s a hell of a motivator. I picked a sharp rock and pitched away at the window to loosen the window bars.

I then made a makeshift rope from torn bed sheets and the tunics they gave me to clean up and dress in over the next three days. It took me the first two nights to pitch a hole small enough to not be noticed but big enough for me to squeeze through, and the knots in the sheets tight enough to not loosen and drop me to my doom.

On the night of my second day of deciding, the Alpha paid me a visit in the afternoon. I despised his presence and wanted to spit at his face.

“I hope you've decided Alina, we both know it's for the best.” Was all he said, and then he was gone. Ordering new tunics to be sent to my cell.

It felt like the gods were in my favour, I shredded them and wrung them together with the sheets. Finally, my makeshift rope was ready, I flung it through the window and tied the end to the only bar left in the window.

Climbing out, I offered a prayer whispered to whatever god might still pity me and let me escape.

I ran in a crouched position the moment my feet touched grass, dodging all checks and guards on duty.

I was almost at the gate when a bright light shone on my crouched body and momentarily blinded me.

Guards went into pandemonium and there were shouts of catch her. I let adrenaline take over and I sprinted towards the gate, it was slowly closing in on me and I barely managed to jump out before it closed shut.

I landed with a thud on the ground and I was about to celebrate my successful escape when a pair of polished boots appeared before me. I could tell who it was before I looked up.

It was the Alpha, I cursed and slumped into the ground, exhausted. I had failed.

He bent low to my level and held my chin up, “I knew you were going to try escaping. I admire your fiery nature but this isn't some cat and mouse game. It's a matter of the world's safety.”

He released my chin and told the guards to open the gates and take me back inside. I cursed again, my eyes throwing daggers in his direction.

The guards descended upon me once the gates were open and dragged me in. The moment I was back to the Alpha’s compound, I knew I’d blown any sliver of mercy I might’ve earned. What I didn’t expect was to be escorted straight into a stone sanctum reeking of herbs, dust, and dark magic.

Waiting for me was a woman cloaked in green velvet, her face painted with silver sigils. She looked up from her bowl of burning sage, and I felt the air thicken around me.

“Alina Verros,” she said in a voice like dry leaves rustling. “You’ve made things… complicated.”

“Where’s the Alpha?” I demanded.

“Preparing the ritual,” she replied. “You were warned. You chose defiance.”

“You mean freedom.”

“No,” she said calmly. “I mean defiance. And now, your magic must be bound before it tears this place apart.”

I backed up. “I didn’t agree to this.”

She raised her hand and my body went rigid, not paralyzed, but worse. Like my bones remembered some primal order and obeyed without my consent.

She approached and pressed a thumb soaked in ash and blood to my forehead.

“I bind the Vessel to stillness. I sever the chaos from the core.”

The world rang with silence. Something inside me recoiled, then slumped.

I gasped, staggering as she stepped back. I could still breathe, still move, but the power that surged through me since the forest was gone.

“What did you do?” I hissed.

“Muted you. Temporarily.” She turned back to her altar. “You’ll speak vows tonight. Or you’ll be silenced permanently. Lucan is not unkind, but he is not patient.”

They left me in a room that was going to be my quarters till after the wedding, under heavy guard. The gown laid out for me was black. Silk. High-necked and sleeveless, with thread-of-silver embroidery curling up the bodice like thorns. A warning more than a gift.

I didn’t dress for hours. Just sat there, staring at the moon

The full moon hung bloated and bright in the sky as they led me out of my room and to the clearing.

There was no altar, just a ring of werewolves standing in silence beneath ancient trees, the ground painted in runes that pulsed dull red. A stone basin of blood steamed in the center.

Lucan stood opposite me.

He wore black robes and silver armor across his shoulders. His hair was slicked back, eyes glowing faintly under the moonlight. He looked... burdened, but I couldn't care what he was feeling at the moment.

“Is this your idea of a wedding?” I snapped, trying to mask the tremble in my voice.

“It’s not a wedding,” he said. “It’s a binding. A last resort. And it’s your fault we’re here.”

“Oh, so now I’m the villain?”

“You refused peace.”

“You offered chains!”

He didn’t reply. Instead, he took a ceremonial dagger from the robed attendant beside him. “Begin the rite.”

The green-cloaked witch appeared again, voice echoing across the grove. Her hair shone in the moonlight.

“Tonight, under the light of the Binding Moon, the Alpha of the Emberfall Pack takes a mate, not for love, but for survival. For the Veil trembles, and the Vessel must be anchored.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“Do you, Lucan Rhyst, bind yourself to the Vessel, knowing it is not of your choosing, nor of hers?”

“I do,” he said, voice low.

“Do you, Alina Verros, accept the bond to this Alpha, knowing it is forced for your power threatens the realms?”

My throat clenched.

“I…”

I couldn’t say it.

She nodded. “Then blood must speak.”

Lucan stepped forward. He drew the blade across his palm, then across mine before I could even protest. When our blood met in the basin, the runes flared violently, and wind whipped around us.

“Let the bond be sealed.”

The moment the words left her lips, pain lanced through my chest. Like a thread being sewn through my heart, dragging, anchoring, burning.

I screamed but no sound escaped. My mouth opened. My soul wailed and the moon watched.

When it ended, I collapsed, Lucan caught me before I hit the ground.

“I didn’t want this,” I whispered. “You didn’t have to make me a prisoner.”

His voice was barely audible. “I didn’t want a prisoner. I needed a tether.”

I looked up at him, this man I was now bound to. This stranger. This Alpha.

His eyes weren’t cruel. Just... tired.