Chapter 4 THE PRISON OF THE MATE BOND

The word Mate felt like a burning chain connecting me to Kael, and Marcus Thorne’s threats were the warden’s iron key.

​I didn't run from the school; I flew. My lungs burned with every desperate gasp, and the concrete of the maintenance corridor blurred around me. Marcus’s chilling words - suffered the consequences - echoed with a raw, lethal weight that eclipsed Kael’s primal growl. One word was possessive, the other, murderous. Both were now terrifying realities.

​I practically threw myself onto the first bus, collapsing into a window seat. I pressed my forehead against the cold glass, trying to calm the violent shaking that ran from my fingertips to my core.

​Werewolves.

​The thought was utterly surreal. Yet I had just witnessed the impossible speed, the unnatural fury in Kael’s amber eyes, the sheer, cold dominance of Marcus Thorne. It wasn't a fantasy. It was real, and I was caught in the center of their hidden, dangerous world. The terrifying reality was that the threats Marcus had issued weren't empty; they operated outside human law. He was an Alpha, and I was a compromised human trespasser.

​The bus journey was an agonizing slow crawl. Every mile that brought me closer to the Thorne manor brought with it an increase in the low, insistent pressure in my head. The dizzying thrum I’d felt earlier now pulsed with a dull ache, and I could still taste the phantom scent of Kael’s cologne and that earthy musk. It was as if a primitive, desperate part of my body was screaming in confused protest over the forced separation.

​He's my stepbrother. He's a werewolf. And he thinks I belong to him. The total insanity of the situation was paralyzing.

​The Thorne fortress loomed out of the twilight, cold and silent. I slipped in the back entrance, hoping to make it to my room without encountering anyone.

​My luck, however, had run out for the day.

​My mother, Sarah, was waiting in the vast living room, curled on the expensive sofa, reading a magazine. She looked up, her face instantly concerned.

​"Willow? What is wrong? You look pale," she said, rising, her magazine slipping to the floor.

​This was my moment. The moment to confess everything, to beg her to take me back to our old, safe life. Mom, Kael is a werewolf, and his father just threatened to kill me if I talk.

​But the words caught in my throat. How could I say that without sounding clinically insane? And more importantly, how could I jeopardize the fragile happiness she had finally found with Marcus? She was blind to the darkness in this house, choosing to see only stability and love.

​"It was just school, Mom," I managed, my voice weak and trembling. "There was... drama. Kael and I had a fight. A really bad one."

​Her expression instantly shifted from concern to weary disappointment. "Oh, Willow. Teenagers. He has a lot on his shoulders, you know. He's under a lot of pressure from Marcus. You just need to be the bigger person and let his antics slide."

​"Mom, you don't understand," I pleaded, tears finally pricking my eyes. "This wasn't a normal drama. His dad - Marcus - he was involved. He was terrifying. They were arguing about things that..."

​I trailed off, unable to connect the pieces of Pack law and Alpha succession to her human reality.

​"Willow, darling," she said, walking over to smooth my hair, her touch gentle and completely oblivious. "Marcus is a powerful man. He runs a large company, and he has high expectations for Kael. Just give them space, okay? He cares about you, I know he does. He just has a very traditional way of running his family."

​Traditional way of running his family. That was how she interpreted the threat on my life and the existence of a supernatural species. My isolation was complete. I was entirely alone in this terrifying secret.

​I pulled away gently. "I'm sorry. I just need to be alone."

​I practically ran to my room in the west wing, locking the heavy door behind me. I sank onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. The Mate bond symptoms were intensifying the closer I got to Kael's territory.

​I knew Kael was confined somewhere on the property. Marcus had told him: "Training starts now. You will run until the human scent is burned from your system."

​I got up and paced my room, the fear of Marcus battling the confusing, desperate pull I felt toward the boy who had just claimed me.

​Then, I heard it.

​It wasn't a howl this time, but the distant, rhythmic thudding of someone running at an impossible, sustained speed, followed by a sound of pure strain - a sharp, ragged expulsion of breath. It came from the dense, private woods behind the house.

​It was Kael. And he was punishing himself because of me.

​I crept to the window, pulling aside the heavy curtain. I couldn't see anything in the twilight, but I could clearly hear the desperate cadence of his pace. It sounded like an animal in distress, pushing past the point of exhaustion, fueled only by rage and the Alpha's decree.

​The physical pressure in my head became a sharp stab of sympathetic pain, mirroring his exertion. It was the Mate bond, confirming his presence, confirming his suffering, and confirming that the fragile peace I craved was impossible. I was emotionally and physically tethered to the very thing I needed to escape.

​I needed help, but the only person who knew the truth, Liora, had been told to keep silent. I couldn't risk her. I had to find my own information, my own weapon.

​I reached for my laptop, opening a browser. The first word I typed wasn't "werewolf," which felt too crazy. It was: "Stormfang line." I had to learn what I was up against. I had to understand the laws of the prison I had just been locked into.

WILLOW’S POV

Sleep didn’t come easily after what happened in the supply closet.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face again - Kael’s eyes glowing faintly, pupils blown wide like a predator cornering prey. His breath ghosted across my cheek, warm and sharp. The word he whispered still clung to the walls of my skull:

Mate.

It felt like a brand. One I didn’t ask for. One I couldn’t understand.

I finally drifted off sometime past midnight, the house too quiet, the shadows too heavy. But the moment I fell asleep, I knew something was wrong.

I wasn’t dreaming.

I was falling.

Down, down, into darkness that felt alive. A cold wind tore past me, carrying whispers - low, guttural, familiar in a way that scraped bone.

Mine.

A voice too deep to be human.

A howl rang out, vibrating through the darkness until it pierced my ribs. The shadows shifted, pulling back like curtains ripped open by a storm.

Suddenly, a forest exploded into view beneath me - trees stretching endlessly, their branches twisted toward a moon that pulsed like a heartbeat.

I hit the ground hard, knees slamming into wet leaves. My palms sank into the mud, cold and slick. When I lifted my hands, the mud glistened red.

Not mud.

Blood.

I gasped, stumbling back. My breath came out in clouds, the air freezing enough to sting.

A growl rolled out from behind me.

Deep.

Low.

Hungry.

When I turned, something massive stepped out from between the trees.

A wolf.

No - not a wolf. Not really. Its body was huge, too huge, its fur black as night and eyes glowing gold. Fangs glinted wetly in the moonlight. It stood there, muscles taut, staring at me like I was the last thing keeping it alive.

My lungs locked.

The wolf took one step forward.

Leaves crunched.

My heart was hammered.

My throat dried.

“Kael?”

The word escaped me before I could stop it.

The wolf’s ears flicked.

Its head tilted.

And something in its eyes flickered - recognition.

Mate.

The voice wasn’t spoken. It echoed inside my mind, vibrating through my bones. My blood turned to ice as the meaning settled in. It wasn’t human. It wasn’t verbal.

It was instinct.

Animals.

Raw.

The wolf lunged.

I screamed - but it didn’t attack. It didn’t bite. It crashed into me, knocking me backward. Not to hurt me.

To shield me.

Behind it, the trees tore apart like something enormous was forcing its way through them. A second presence - heavier, colder, dangerous - stalked through the forest. A shadow with eyes burning red like embers.

Marcus.

Not Marcus human.

Marcus… changed.

The monstrous silhouette snarled, the sound warping the air. The black wolf in front of me growled back, its body shaking with the force of it. I felt that growl in my teeth.

The two wolves circled each other, tension building until it felt like the forest itself was holding its breath.

Then… 

They collided.

A blur of claws and teeth and snarls, ripping through the silence. I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t breathe. Fear clamped around my ribs, squeezing until tears blurred my vision.

“Stop!” I choked out. “Kael! Please - STOP!”

The black wolf whipped his head toward me at the sound of my voice - and the other wolf struck his side.

Kael stumbled, yelping in pain.

The sound ripped through me like a blade. Something hot and bright flashed across my chest - like a rope pulling taut between us, burning.

The bond.

I felt his pain like it was my own.

I dropped to my knees, gasping, clutching at my shirt as invisible fire spread across my sternum.

“Please,” I whispered, not sure who I was begging. “Please stop…”

Everything grew blurry.

The wolves, the forest, the blood.

It all began to dissolve into shadows.

The last thing I saw was Kael’s wolf turning toward me, bleeding, fighting to crawl my way… 

His gaze was soft.

Pleading.

Mine… stay…

Then darkness swallowed everything.

I woke up screaming.

My sheets were drenched. My chest burned like someone had pressed a hot iron to it. Moonlight spilled across my room, the silence too sharp, too still.

I pressed a trembling hand to my sternum.

No burn.

No mark.

But the pain lingered like a bruise on the inside.

My breath wouldn’t steady.

It wasn’t just a nightmare.

Something about it felt too real - too connected. Like the dream wasn’t mine or his but something shared between us.

The bond.

The word lodged itself in my mind, cold and heavy.

If this was what being “mates” meant…

I wasn’t sure I could survive it.