Chapter 5

The dining hall never fully recovered after Adrian left.

Even once the noise returned, it came back unevenly, scattered and too bright, like people were trying to sound normal while listening for the next crack in the floor beneath them. Lisa kept her eyes on her food, even though she had no appetite left. Around her, spoons scraped bowls, benches shifted, cups knocked softly against wood. Every ordinary sound seemed exaggerated by the tension still hanging in the room.

She could feel the whispers moving.

Not words, not clearly. Just fragments. Her name in someone’s mouth. Adrian’s in another. A hush, a glance, a half-laughed question.

Mary rose first.

She set down her cup without finishing it and looked directly at Raymond . “You know you talk too much right?.”

Raymond gave an awkward, defensive smile. “I just said one thing.”

“Yes,” Mary replied. “And it was so stupid.”

The table fell silent around them.

Raymond ’s grin faltered. “What is your problem?”

“You are my problem .”

Then she walked away.

That did nothing to calm the room.

If anything, it made the tension sharper. Raymond glanced around as if expecting support, but no one came to his rescue. A few wolves looked away. Others pretended sudden interest in their meals. Whatever had just happened between him and Adrian , and now Mary, had crossed into territory no one wanted to touch too openly.

Lisa should have left then but Instead, she forced herself to stay long enough to finish half her bread and a few spoonfuls of stew. She would not run because of them. She would not give the room the satisfaction of seeing her break.

Still, by the time she stood, her hands were trembling again.

She took her tray to the wash table near the kitchen doors and was reaching for the stack of cloths when she heard low voices from the corridor beyond.

Male voices ,sharp and urgent.

She knew one of them immediately.

Adrian.

Instinct made her pause.

Not because she wanted to eavesdrop, she told herself. But because the bond had already tightened, unmistakable and restless, and because there was something in his tone she had never heard before — not anger exactly, but strain. Real strain.

The kitchen servants were busy behind her, too occupied to notice if she lingered for a few seconds longer than necessary. Quietly, Lisa stepped closer to the narrow service doorway that opened into the side corridor.

Raymond stood there with Adrian .

Raymond looked uneasy. Adrian looked dangerous as always .

“I said I was joking man,” Rowan muttered.

Adrian had him backed half against the wall, one hand braced beside Raymond’s shoulder, not touching him but close enough to make his point. “Then learn better jokes.”

Raymond glanced past him down the corridor, probably checking whether anyone was coming. “What is wrong with you tonight?”

Adrian’s jaw tightened once. “Nothing.”

“You know that’s not true.”

Adrian laughed, low and humorless. “You want to test that theory?”

Raymond exhaled sharply. “Fine. Forget I asked.”

“No,” Adrian said. “You don’t get to throw words around in a crowded hall and then tell me to forget it.”

Something in Isla’s chest pulled hard.

Not because he was defending her. She refused to think that. More likely he was protecting himself, protecting whatever story he still thought he could control. And yet—

He had gone after Raymond .

Not her.

That mattered more than she wanted it to.

Raymond rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “People were already talking , Adrian . I didn’t start that.”

A beat of silence followed.

Then Raymond said, more carefully, “You want to tell me what this is really about?”

Adrian’s face changed.

Only slightly. But Lisa saw it, and the sight made her stomach twist. The anger did not leave him; it drew inward instead, tightening behind his eyes.

“You don’t want to know,” he said.

Raymond stared at him. Then, very softly, “see.”

The single syllable seemed to empty the corridor of air.

Adrian straightened at once. “You know nothing.”

Raymond held up both hands. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

Adrian stepped closer again. “If you speak about this—”

“I won’t I promise .” Raymond’s voice had lost its teasing edge completely now. “I won’t.”

For a long second, they stood like that, Adrian rigid with warning, Raymond pale and suddenly serious.

Then Adrian pushed away from the wall and dragged a hand through his hair. The movement looked rough, frustrated, unlike his usual easy control. “Just stay out of it.”

Raymond let out a breath. “You think I want to be in it?”

Adrian did not answer.

He turned around , and Lisa barely had time to step back into the shadows beside the kitchen doorway before he strode past. He did not see her. Or he pretend not to see her , he gave no sign. The bond blazed as he passed, hot and immediate, enough to make her grip the edge of the shelf beside her for balance.

Then he was gone.

Raymond remained in the corridor a moment longer, staring at nothing .

When he finally looked up, his eyes landed directly on Lisa.

For one horrible heartbeat, neither of them moved.

She had been seen.

Raymond’s expression shifted through surprise, guilt, and something almost like understanding. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

Lisa turned and walked away before he could say a word.

Outside, the night had deepened.

The camp was quieter now, the busiest hour after supper already fading into scattered movement and dim lantern light. Lisa crossed the yard without knowing exactly where she meant to go. She only knew she needed air. Space. Distance from everyone and whispers and the impossible knot tightening in her chest.

She ended up at the edge of the old training field again.

The moon hung above the pines, pale and watchful. Frost silvered the ground. Far off, someone was splitting wood; each strike echoed through the dark with dull, rhythmic force.

Lisa wrapped her arms around herself and stood very still.

Raymond knew.

Or if not the whole truth, then enough of it.

That frightened her. But underneath the fear, another thought kept rising, stubborn and unwelcome.

Adrian had not denied it to Raymond not really.

He had threatened him, yes. Tried to contain it. Tried to force silence over whatever had already been guessed. But there had been something raw in him too, something strained and almost desperate.

You don’t want to know.

The words haunted her.

What had he meant?

That the bond itself was unbearable?

That she was?

That the consequences would ruin them both?

She thought of what he had said the night before near the weapon rack:

You think this means something?

It’s a mistake.

You’re my problem.

Cruel words. Deliberate ones.

And yet tonight, in the corridor, he had looked less cruel than cornered.

Lisa hated that the distinction mattered.

She sank onto the low fence rail at the edge of the ring and stared across the empty field. Maybe Mae was right. Maybe fear and cruelty did wear the same face in young wolves. But knowing that did not soften what Adrian had done. It did not wash away the training-yard humiliations, or the spilled stew, or the years of contempt.

Still, a new unease had entered the space where her anger lived.

Because if Adrian was not only ashamed of the bond, but afraid of it—

Then something bigger was moving beneath all of this.

A twig snapped behind her.

Lisa stood at once.

Mary stepped from between the trees.

She looked almost ghostly in the moonlight, her pale hair braided back, her face unreadable. Unlike Raymond , she carried silence like a weapon. She came no closer than necessary and folded her arms.

“You shouldn’t be alone out here,” she said.

Lisa laughed once, without humor. “I’m rarely anything else.”

Mary ignored that. “Raymond talks too much.”

“So you said.”

“He didn’t mean harm.”

Lisa’s gaze sharpened. “That sounds like the sort of thing people say right before harm arrives anyway.”

For the first time, Mary’s expression shifted. Not quite amusement. Not quite approval.

“Fair enough ,” she said.

The bond remained quiet. Adrian was nowhere nearby.

That should have been a relief. Instead Lisa found herself suddenly tired to the bone.

“What do you want?” Lisa asked

Mary looked toward the empty ring before answering. “To warn you.”

Every muscle in Lisa’s body tightened.

“About what?” If I may ask.

Mira’s eyes returned to hers. “Adrian is not good at losing control.”

The night seemed to deepen around them.

Lisa kept her voice steady. “Is that supposed to frighten me?”

“No It’s supposed to prepare you.”

Mary took a step back, as if already regretting coming. “He’s been watched his whole life. Measured. Trained. Told exactly who he has to be. If something has happened that he can’t control…”

She let the sentence trail off.

Lisa stared at her. “Then what?”

Mary ’s face gave nothing away now. “Then he’ll fight it until he breaks something.”

A cold shiver moved through Lisa.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Mary was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Because whatever this is, it won’t stay hidden for long.”

And with that, she turned and disappeared back into the trees.

Lisa remained by the fence long after she was gone, the moonlight pale on the frozen ground, Mary’s warning echoing through her head.

He’ll fight it until he breaks something.

She did not know whether Mary meant himself.

Or her.

Either way, for the first time since the bond awakened, Lisa understood one thing clearly:

The danger was no longer just that Adrian hated her.

It was that he might hate what he felt enough to destroy anything standing too close to it.