CHAPTER 5

Elara's POV

My grandmother was waiting on the porch when we arrived. She took one look at me, covered in blood, wrapped in Kael's jacket, and her face went white.

"Inside," she said, her voice shaking.

"Both of you. Now."

We followed her into the house. She locked the door behind us and closed all the curtains. Then she made me sit at the kitchen table while she heated water for tea.

Kael stood by the door, watching silently. His wounds from the fight were already healing.

"Tell me the truth," I said when my grandmother finally sat down.

"All of it. No more lies."

She was quiet for a long moment. Her hands shook as she poured tea.

"Your mother's name was Elena," she finally began.

"She was special. Different from other wolves."

"How different?"

"She came from the first bloodline. The ancient wolves that existed before packs formed. They were stronger than normal wolves. Faster. More powerful." My grandmother's eyes were distant.

"But they were also dangerous. They fed on emotions. Anger. Fear. Desire."

I thought about the dark thing I'd felt inside me when I shifted. That hunger for violence.

"What happened to her?" I asked quietly.

"There was a prophecy," my grandmother said.

"About a red-haired wolf with green eyes. Fated to a silver-eyed Alpha. But their union would destroy his entire bloodline."

My blood ran cold.

Kael shifted uncomfortably by the door but said nothing.

"Your mother matched that description," my grandmother continued.

"Packs started hunting her. They wanted to kill her before the prophecy could come true. She ran. She came here to Black Hollow and hid you here. She thought if she kept you away from wolves, kept you from shifting, you'd be safe."

Tears filled her eyes.

"But they found her anyway."

"Who?" My voice came out as a whisper. "Who killed her?"

The silence in the kitchen was heavy. Terrible.

I looked at Kael. His face was tight with something that looked like guilt.

"Tell me," I demanded.

"Who killed my mother?"

"My father," Kael said quietly. His voice was flat. Empty.

"He led the hunt."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.

"What?"

"My father had silver eyes," Kael continued.

"When the prophecy emerged, he believed your mother was his fated mate. Believed she would destroy everything he'd built. So he hunted her down." He paused.

"And when he found her in this forest fifteen years ago, he killed her."

I stood up so fast my chair fell backward.

"Your father murdered my mother?"

"Yes."

"And now you show up here?" My voice was rising, getting louder.

"Claiming we're mates? Claiming you want to protect me?"

"I didn't know," Kael said. His silver eyes met mine.

"My father never told me what he'd done. I only found out when I started investigating the feral attacks. When I discovered everything was connected to the prophecy—"

"I don't care!" I screamed.

"Your family destroyed mine! Your father killed my mother and orphaned me! And now you expect me to trust you?"

"The mate bond is real," Kael said, his voice harder now.

"I can feel it. You can feel it too. What my father did was wrong, but that doesn't change what we are to each other."

"I don't want it," I said, tears streaming down my face.

"I don't want you. I don't want any bond with the son of a murderer."

Something flashed in Kael's eyes. Pain. Then anger.

"You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do." The words came out before I could stop them.

"I reject you. I reject whatever bond we have. I want nothing to do with you."

The moment I said it, pain exploded in my chest. Like something inside me was being torn apart. I gasped and grabbed the table to keep from falling.

Kael stumbled backward, his hand going to his chest. His face twisted with agony.

"Elara, no!" my grandmother cried, standing quickly.

"You don't understand what you've done!"

But I couldn't take the words back. The rejection was already happening. The mate bond that had been pulling us together, that electric connection I'd felt since the moment we met, started to shred apart.

It felt like my soul was being ripped in half.

Kael's silver eyes blazed with pain and something darker. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal.

"You're rejecting me?" His voice was rough.

"After I saved your life? After I've been trying to protect you?"

"You're the son of the man who killed my mother!" I shouted through the pain.

"How can you expect me to accept a bond with you?"

Kael stared at me for a long moment. The pain on his face slowly disappeared, replaced by something cold and hard.

"Fine," he said, his voice like ice.

"If that's what you want."

"Kael, wait—" my grandmother started.

"No." He cut her off.

"She's made her choice very clear."

He stepped toward me. My grandmother tried to get between us but he gently moved her aside.

Kael stopped right in front of me. His face was a cold but his eyes showed the pain he was feeling.

"I, Kael Draven, Alpha of the Northern Pack, reject you, Elara Ashwood, as my fated mate."

The formal words made the pain a thousand times worse. I fell to my knees, clutching my chest. It felt like my heart was being crushed.

"I sever the mate bond between us," Kael continued, his voice hard and final.

"You are no longer mine. I am no longer yours. The bond is broken."

A sound came out of me that was barely human.The pain was unbearable.

But through it all, I forced myself to look up at him.

"You're making a terrible mistake," he said quietly.

"Without the mate bond, you'll never fully control your ancient wolf. It will consume you eventually. The darkness inside you will take over."

"I'll take my chances."

"And the ferals won't stop hunting you just because we're not bonded anymore. Neither will whoever's controlling them. You'll be alone. Vulnerable."

"I don't need you," I said through gritted teeth.

Kael looked at me for a long moment. His silver eyes were unreadable.

"You're right," he said finally.

"You don't need me. You've made that very clear."

He turned and walked to the door. His hand was on the handle when he stopped.

"For what it's worth," he said without turning around, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what my father did to your mother. I'm sorry I can't change the past. And I'm sorry you hate me for sins I didn't commit."

Then he opened the door and left. It closed behind him with a soft click that sounded final.

The moment he was gone, I collapsed completely onto the floor. The pain from the severed bond was overwhelming. It felt like dying.

My grandmother knelt beside me and held me while I cried.

"Oh, Elara. What have you done?"

"The right thing," I sobbed.

"I can't be with him. Not after what his father did."

"The mate bond exists for a reason," she said softly.

"It helps control your ancient bloodline. Without it, your wolf will be nearly impossible to manage."

"I don't care. I won't bond with a murderer's son."

She held me while the worst of the pain slowly faded. It didn't go away completely. Just settled into a constant ache in my chest that I knew would never fully heal.

Finally, she helped me stand and guided me to my room.

"Try to sleep. We'll figure out what to do in the morning."

I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling. My whole body hurt. My heart hurt worse. But I'd made the right choice. I had to believe that.

Eventually, exhaustion pulled me into sleep.

I got out of bed quickly. My hands shook as I grabbed a bag and started packing. Clothes. Money. The silver knife. I needed to leave Black Hollow. Needed to run before Kael came back to finish what his father started.

I crept down the hallway. My grandmother was asleep in her room. I couldn't wake her. She'd only try to stop me.

I reached the front door and opened it as quietly as possible.

Then I froze.

A woman stood on the porch.

She had long red hair and bright green eyes. She wore a white dress that seemed to glow in the darkness.

She looked exactly like me. But older. Like what I might look like in twenty years.

"Mom?" The word came out as barely a whisper.

The woman smiled. But something was wrong with that smile. It was too wide.

"Hello, daughter," she said.

But the voice wasn't right. Like multiple voices speaking at once.

"You're not my mother," I said, my hand tightening on the silver knife in my pocket.

"Smart girl." Her eyes flashed bright red. "Your mother is dead. Has been for fifteen years. But she left something behind when she died. A curse. A hunger. A need for revenge."

She took a step toward me.

I tried to step back but my body wouldn't move. I was frozen in place.

"You rejected your mate," the creature said.

"That was very foolish. The bond was the only thing keeping me locked away. Keeping me weak. But now..." Her smile grew wider.

"Now there's nothing holding me back."

"What are you?" I managed to ask.

"I'm what your mother became in her final moments. Pure rage. Pure hatred. Pure desire for vengeance against the bloodline that killed her." The thing's eyes burned like fire.

Terror flooded through me.

"No."

"Yes. You felt me when you shifted, didn't you? That dark hunger. That violence. That need to kill." She reached out toward me with a hand that didn't look quite human anymore. Claws extended from her fingertips.

"That was me. And now that you've broken the mate bond, there's nothing stopping me from taking control completely."

I tried to scream but no sound came out.

The creature's hand touched my forehead.

Fire exploded through my brain. I felt something forcing its way into my mind. Taking over. Pushing me down into darkness.

"Don't fight it," the creature whispered in my mother's voice.

"Just let go. Let me have your body. Let me finish what your mother started. Let me destroy the bloodline that murdered her."

I tried to resist. Tried to push it out. But it was too strong.

Everything started going dark.

The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness completely was the creature's face. My face. My mother's face. All twisted together into something monstrous.

And the last thing I heard was my own voice, but not my voice, saying:

"Finally. After all these years. Now the real hunt begins."

Then darkness swallowed me whole.