4. Unexpected Bond

The entire pack was buzzing.

It was like the Moon Goddess herself was paying a visit. The training field was spotless. The courtyard had been swept clean again and again. Even the Omegas were dressed to impress.

Everyone was smiling.

Everyone but me.

I kept my head down, slipping through the crowd gathered at the Alpha’s porch. I stayed to the edge, near a crumbling pillar, where no one’s eyes wandered.

The daughters of the ranked wolves fidgeted nervously, adjusting skirts and fixing their hair, all eyes fixed on the road.

A decorated pathway stretched toward the porch. Silver banners fluttered from the stone walls—Blue Moon’s insignia glowing beneath the early light.

“He’s coming,” someone whispered.

A murmur rippled across the pack like wildfire.

A thunder of hooves rolled in from the distance, shaking the ground beneath us.

Three riders emerged from the treeline, their black horses sleek and battle-trained, silver tack gleaming in the sunlight. The lead rider slowed as they approached the main courtyard, his mount snorting and tossing its head like it felt the weight of a hundred stares.

And then he dismounted.

Lord Lucan.

I was stunned for a moment. I expected arrogance. I expected a proud smirk, maybe a theatrical display of dominance.

What I didn’t expect was stillness.

He moved with a calm, commanding energy that didn’t need theatrics. He was tall—towering over the others without effort—and broad in the shoulders, carrying himself with the coiled grace of a blade sheathed in silence. His dark hair was longer than I imagined, thick and swept back like he hadn’t bothered to tame it. His jaw was sharp, like it had been carved with purpose.

He didn’t look like someone who had spent the last ten years in exile. He looked like someone who’d spent the years in a refined military.

His entire being was otherworldly—but his eyes...

Goddess, his eyes.

They were grey, like winter clouds shadowed with something darker. They held violence restrained by sheer will. Like he saw everyone—and measured them in the same moment.

And found them lacking.

I took a step back, breath hitching.

He was… too different. And different was dangerous.

He didn’t smile. He didn’t need to. His presence alone sent a ripple through the crowd. I could feel the girls around me trying not to swoon.

He nodded once to his father, Alpha Oswald, who stood beaming beside Luna Yvette, his stepmother. I recognized the look in Lucan’s eyes—cool acknowledgment. No warmth.

His gaze swept the crowd.

The pack bowed. Even the most arrogant wolves lowered their heads without hesitation.

I bowed too—but not out of reverence.

When I lifted my head…

He was staring at me.

And in that moment—everything unraveled.

My breath caught, and I instantly felt it.

Like lightning crawling down my spine.

Something deep inside me clawed to the surface—my wolf. For the first time in my entire life, she was awake. No full moon. No ceremony. Just one look.

No.

Not him.

Anyone but him.

I dropped my eyes, body trembling. My chest clenched as if something inside me was being branded.

The bond. The goddess-damned mate bond.

It was real.

But it couldn’t be.

The Moon Goddess wouldn’t bind me to him. Not when I was this close. Not when everything depended on me being invisible.

I dared a glance back up.

He was still looking at me.

But his face had changed.

His expression was unreadable—blank, almost distant—but his eyes burned hotter.

Then he blinked.

And turned away.

Like I was nothing.

Just like everyone else.

The ceremony dragged on for another hour, but I didn’t hear a word. My thoughts roared too loud. My chest ached like something molten had been pierced through it.

No one stopped me when I slipped away.

Of course they didn’t. Who would care if the traitors’ daughter vanished again?

I made it all the way to the woods before my breath evened.

My mate.

Lucan.

I gritted my teeth, leaning against a tree, gripping the bark until it bit into my palms. The bond wasn’t fully formed yet. He hadn’t felt it—not fully. But I had. I felt it because of what I was. What I still didn’t understand.

Maybe he’d reject me the moment he sensed it.

I hoped he would.

I spent the rest of the day hiding.

I couldn’t afford to see him again—not yet.

---

That night, I returned to the tunnels.

Riven was already there.

“You’ve been gone for three days without any communication,” he said, arms crossed. “I feared the worst.”

I didn’t answer.

He stepped closer, eyes scanning me. “You don’t look well. Is it still the poison?”

Still, I said nothing.

He studied me in silence. Then his tone shifted, calm and direct. “This has to do with Lucan.”

I swallowed hard. “I sensed him as my mate.”

He was quiet for a long time.

I looked up.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“I suspected it,” he said softly. “This changes things.”

“No,” I said, my voice flat. “It changes nothing. The plan continues.”

“He’s your mate.”

“He’s my target. I don’t care if I’m mated to the Moon Goddess herself. I didn’t ask for this. And I won’t let it stop me.”

Riven didn’t argue.

“You think you can fight the bond?” he asked.

“I have to.”

There was silence—thick and tense.

Then Riven stepped closer. His voice dropped low. Steady. Unshaken.

“Then fight it with everything in you. Because the moment he realizes what you are…”

“He won’t,” I interrupted.

“And if he does?”

I didn’t answer.

Riven stared at me for a long time. Then, with a small, almost sorrowful smile, he murmured—

“…You won’t want to know the consequences.”

Before I could speak, he reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a small bundle of herbs, wrapped neatly in cloth. The scent that escaped was sharp and earthy, tinged with something bitter.

“Take this,” he said, pressing it into my hand. “Brew it into tea, burn it as incense, crush it into powder—however you can take it. It will mask the bond. Your scent. Even your wolf. No one will sense what’s stirring in you.”

I froze, staring down at the bundle. “When did you prepare this?”

His gaze softened, shadowed with something almost mournful. “A long time ago. Around the time you were nearly eighteen. I’ve carried it every time we met—just in case.”

My throat tightened. He had always known. Always prepared for the storm the Moon Goddess might hurl my way.

“With this, no one will know you’ve presented. No Alpha can mark you,” he added.

I nodded quietly. It was almost too good to believe—that something like this existed, and that it came just in time. For the first time that day, I could finally breathe again.