CHAPTER FOUR

The Spell

Silas’s POV

The taste of pennies drowned in syrup coats the back of my throat. It feels like choking on smoke, but my hands remain perfectly still as I hold the ceremonial iron dagger.

"Do it, Silas," a voice purrs inside my mind. It has a smooth, hypnotic and a soft velvet cadence to it, wrapping around my thoughts like thick ropes. "Slice your palm. Bind yourself to me, your soul is mine. I am your Luna."

My body moves without my permission. I press the blade to my skin. Deep in the back of my mind, my wolf is howling in pain, his claws tearing at the walls of my own skull, begging me to stop. 'Wrong! Not her! Wrong!' He roars over and over again. But the voice in my head, the foreign, lulling sweetness hums an inviting melody and the fog settles right back over my eyes.

Quick as light, I draw the blade across my palm. The pain barely registers as I have endured much worse. The blood wells, dark and hot.

Noelle smiles, her eyes flashing with a gleam of triumph as she reaches out and presses her own bleeding palm against mine.

To complete the process, I have to mark her with my bite and she would mark me, joining our scents together so that everyone would know we were together.

The moment our skin touches, instead of the golden, warm rush of a true bond, a violent, agonizing shockwave rips through my chest.

The ancient magic of the mate bond recoils from her touch, screeching against the fake connection.

Crack.

The glass over my mind splinters. The thick, suffocating fog dissipates in a single, breathless second.

A gasp escapes me and I stumble backward as the weight of reality slams into my chest with something like the force of a boulder. The cloying smell of excessive sweetness vanishes instantly , replaced by the raw, suffocating scent of adrenaline and wild pine.

“SIlas?” Noelle’s voice has lost its melody, it is now sharp and panicked as she takes a step towards me. “What are you doing? Finish the bond.”

I don’t register what she is saying. My memories are rushing back in almost violent torrents, unlocking with terrifying clarity.

The ceremony. The public gathering. Emery standing before the pack, her beautiful, wild frost-white hair billowing in the wind and her eyes filled with hope. The mate bond snapping into place, burning hot and perfect. And… me.

By the moon, what did I do?

It all comes to me then, I remember the words. My own voice, hollow and unfeeling, delivering the brutal rejection.

I remember her on her knees in the basement, crying and screaming for me and I had signs her exile. I had handed her over to be dragged and humiliated.

I remember the voice, smooth as silk, spreading over my mind.

“What did you do to me?” I roar, the sound vibrating the stone walls of the room.

Noelle flinches, her practiced resolve cracking as she tries to raise her voice into another hypnotic hum. “Silas, listen to my voice…”

I lunge forward, my hand locking around her throat before she could utter another syllable.

I slam her directly into the stone pillar behind her, the sheer force of my Alpha aura chokes the very air from the room.

“You took over my mind,” I snarl, my wolf begs for control so he can tear out her neck, but I manage to keep him in check. “You used your powers to make me reject my mate, framed her and cast her out.”

“She…” she sputters and coughs but I only squeeze tighter. “She was wolfless!” Noelle chokes out, clawing at my wrist, her face slowly turning a shade of purple. “A glitch. She was pathetic, Silas! She didn’t deserve you!”

“She is mine,” I whisper, the words cutting through my soul like a hot blade.

I throw her to the ground, letting her cough and gag for breath.

“Matt!” I call through the mental pack link.

The doors burst open, and Matthias rushes in, freezing at the sight of the chaos.

“Get her out of my sight,” I tell him, my voice shakes with an unhinged, feral panic.

“Throw her in the deepest and darkest cell. I’ve crushed her vocal chords for now, it should take a day or two before it heals, but gag her to be safe.”

I see it dawn on Noelle, her eyes widen at and then harden as she makes her decision.

With a flick of her wrist, her claws emerge and she lunges for Matthias. The surprise of the attack catches him off guard but he recovers quickly, catching her by the wrists and throwing her backward.

Noelle gains her feet instantly and is on him in a second. She wipes at him and Matthias ducks and rams into her, the two of them falling to a floor.

I watch them impassively. Noelle is a wonder in a fight, but Matthias is a born fighter. He is one of the smartest people I know, quick on his feet and a master strategist. All the things that make him dangerous in a fight.

Where I charge with brute force, he approaches things with a cunning that never fails to surprise me. That is I chose him to be my Beta.

That and the fact that as my best friend, he would always have my back.

Noelle manages to get him good with a swipe of her claws to his cheek. Matthias dodged the next blow and rolls away from her.

In barely any time at all, they come together again in a collision of teeth, fists and claws.

I move to stand by the door so she doesn't make a run for it.

Noelle manages to break from their struggle and turns for the door, stopping in her tracks when she sees me there.

Formidable or not, she knows if she comes at me, I would tear her to pieces.

And I wouldn't need any of my wolf abilities to do it.

Mathias grabs her by the back of the neck and pushes her into a wall. There is a resounding smack and she falls back, landing hard on her ass.

I know I should probably step in but my mind is too occupied with the events of the last few hours and I don't mind that they are fighting.

All the better if she's taken out of here unconscious.

Matthias has her properly subdued now, her arms and pinned tightly behind her as he lifts her to her feet.

She bucks and thrashes against his hold but he has her securely in his grip. Her usual pristine, sleek sheet of straight white hair is in tangles on her head and her dress is ripped in places.

She looks like the rabid thing that she is.

“Silas, wait!” Her voice is a hoarse garble as Mathias grabs her arms. “You can’t do this! She’s probably dead by now anyway, her body should be nothing but a broken mess in the Black Ridge!”

I go still. Her words freeze me on the spot as a slow, lethal terror travels through my veins. The Black Ridge. The Cliffs.

It is a place that none ventured into.

The Black Ridge cuts through the forest like a scab that never fully healed. From a distance, it was just darkness. Up close, you would understand why. The trees grew strangely, they were too tall, the bark blackened as if they had been touched by fire that left them twisted into shapes that looked like limbs. It was said that nothing green grew at their roots. Only stone, and the dirt that looked like blood.

The air around it was all wrong, colder than the rest of the woods and heavier, like breathing through a wet cloth. There were never any sounds from the Ridge. No birds, insects, just wind weaving through the dead branches with the sound of chattering teeth.

The wolves never go near it. Not any of the packs, not even rogues.

We called it The Black Ridge. A name so old, we don’t even know where it came from. My grandmother said it had memories, that it held knowledge, but nobody would go to it.

Because once you went searching, The Black Ridge answered.

An image of Emery flashes through my mind, her body battered at the mouth of the ridge and my blood runs cold.

I don’t wait to see Noelle being dragged out. My bones snap and pop, transforming in a matter of seconds as my wolf tears through my skin. I don’t register the brief pain of the shift or the clothes ripping to tatters.

My giant, jet-black wolf crashes through the glass windows, drawing some startled shouts as I land on the hard earth below. Whatever remains of the mate bond is stretched taut by now, but I feel it when a definitive snap cracks through my chest.

I throw my head back, unleashing a roar of pure unfiltered grief that echoes across their expanse of land and I plunge into the forest, racing towards the border at a manic pace.

Please, let her be alive.