Chapter Six

IVY’S POV

The silence in Nightfall was nothing like Silver Crest. At Silver Crest, silence had meant danger, something sharp creeping up behind you, a slap, a shove, a punishment. But here, it was thick, cold and pressing.

I had been in the Nightfall Pack house for days now, maybe a week. Time blurred. There were no familiar rhythms, no harsh morning bells, no kitchen smoke to choke on, no snarling elders to dodge, and yet, I felt just as caged.

They didn’t torture me, but they didn’t speak to me either.

The warriors who brought me here dropped me off like cargo. One woman handed me clothes, simple but clean, a pair of soft pants, a tunic, and boots that actually fit. Another brought food, steamed vegetables, warm bread, broth. They didn’t force me to eat, but I did. Hunger clawed too loudly to ignore.

Still, no one said a word. Not even to ask my name.

I slept in a room too nice for someone like me. It wasn’t grand, but it had a bed, a window, a basin for water. Blankets that smelled like cedar. A small mirror I refused to look into. It felt wrong. Like I was squatting in someone else’s life.

And Kane?

He hadn’t come.

Not even once.

I thought about him more than I wanted to. His voice, his face. The strange, heavy way he looked at me that night before the world turned to ash. He hadn’t needed to spare me. It would’ve been easier to let me die with the rest. But he hadn’t.

Why?

What did he see when he looked at me?

Nothing had made sense since that night. I didn’t understand why I was still alive. Why they hadn’t tossed me in a cell or killed me outright. I was nothing. Less than that, a curse.

And yet, I was here, clothed and fed.

Unspoken but untrusted.

It made me restless.

That morning, I opened the window for the first time. The wind was sharp with mountain cold, but the air was clean…too clean. No smoke, no rot, just pine and snow and something darker beneath it all, like a storm always waiting.

From the window, I saw warriors training in the courtyard. Kane wasn’t among them, but his presence haunted the space like a phantom. They moved with discipline, power, purpose. Every step rehearsed. Every strike meant to kill.

Nightfall Pack was not like Silver Crest. It was stronger and hungrier.

Built to survive, built to take.

I stepped back and let the curtain fall shut.

I didn’t belong here, I didn’t belong anywhere.

That night, I dreamed again.

Not of fire, not of screams, but of stars, cold and burning, spiraling above me like eyes in the sky. I stood barefoot in a field of ash, wearing a gown I’d never owned, wind curling around my body like a lover.

A woman stood across from me.

She had my eyes and face.

Older, wiser and beautiful in a way that terrified me.

She spoke in a language I didn’t know, but somehow, I felt the words in my bones. They lit something in me, something wild and broken and sacred. She reached out her hand and just before I touched it, I woke up sweating and shaking.

My heart beat too fast. My skin felt wrong. The silence in the room was suffocating.

I sat up and pressed my palms to my chest. I could still feel the echo of that woman’s voice, the stars behind her.

Who was she?

Why did she feel… familiar?

I tried to stand but staggered, gripping the edge of the bed. That’s when I heard it—no, felt it.

A flicker…not from me.

A spike of anger, sharp and distant.

Not mine.

And then it was gone.

I stood still, heart thundering. “Hello?” I whispered, to no one.

No answer.

Maybe I was losing it.

But then it happened again. It was stronger this time.

Frustration, cold and heavy.

And a deep, tight voice with fury.

“They disobeyed direct orders. That won’t go unpunished.”

My knees buckled. I gasped, gripping the edge of the dresser. The voice wasn’t in the room. It wasn’t in my ears.

It was in my head.

But it wasn’t me.

It was him. It was Kane’s

I sank to the floor, trembling.

What was happening to me?

Had I finally broken?

No. No, it was real.

I felt him, I felt his rage, his restraint, his control slipping like blood through clenched fists and underneath it all…I felt confusion.

He didn’t understand what I was.

Neither did I.

The bond was this the bond they whispered about in tales? The one that tied souls before even the gods?

But Kane hadn’t claimed me.

He hadn’t even spoken to me since that night.

So why was I hearing him now?

Why was I feeling what he felt?

The next day, I wandered the halls.

No one stopped me. But no one welcomed me either.

Eyes followed me like ghosts. Curious, wary, some disgusted. I heard the whispers.

“The Silver Crest girl…”

“She’s the cursed one…”

“Why is she still here?”

I kept my head down and kept walking.

I needed answers.

I needed to see him.

I found the training grounds again and lingered at the edge of the barracks. The cold bit at my cheeks, but I didn’t move. Not until I felt it again.

That flicker, that storm.

Kane was near.

Then I saw him towering, commanding, dressed in black. His eyes locked on mine across the yard like he’d felt me before he saw me.

He stopped mid-conversation.

So did I.

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

Then the flicker turned to fire.

Emotion slammed into me like a wave, confusion, fury, guilt. A hundred threads of thought I couldn’t untangle. My knees buckled again, but this time I didn’t fall.

He saw it, he felt it.

His eyes widened just slightly.

And then, without a word, he turned and walked away.

The bond pulsed.

The silence between us screamed louder than any voice.

I clutched my chest and gasped for breath.

He felt me.

He knew. And he ran.

Why did he run?

Why was he afraid?

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt Kane’s emotions tugging at me like strings I didn’t understand.

Anger? Conflict? Guilt? Desire?

No. No, I was imagining things.

Wasn’t I?

I stared at the ceiling all night, waiting for the next flicker.

When it came, it wasn’t what I expected.

It was pain.

Sharp, deep from somewhere inside him.

His voice echoed in my head, low and hollow.

“I should have let her die.”

Tears slid down my cheeks before I could stop them.

Because for the first time in seventeen years, I wasn’t alone in my mind.

But it felt lonelier than ever.

One night, I left my room.

I padded barefoot through the halls, silent as a ghost. The Nightfall wolves still didn’t speak to me, but they didn’t stop me either. They watched. I could feel their eyes on my back like knives.

I followed the bond.

Or maybe it pulled me.

Kane’s scent grew stronger near the eastern wing like storm and smoke and something sharp like pine. It filled my nose, curled around my throat. My pulse quickened. I didn’t know what I was doing. What I expected. But something inside me ached to understand.

I reached a door. It was slightly ajar.

Inside, Kane stood shirtless in front of a wide window, his back tense, scarred, carved from shadow. He didn’t turn when I stepped inside.

But he knew I was there.

“I didn’t summon you,” he said, voice flat.

“I know.”

He paused.

I continued

“I didn’t think you’d come back.” He still didn’t look at me.

“I didn’t think I’d live long enough to be here.”

He went silent again.

I took a shaky breath. “I hear you.”

That made him turn.

His eyes met mine, and something shifted in them like recognition, fear, fury. “What did you say?”

I swallowed. My throat felt like it was lined with glass. “Your thoughts. They… come to me. Like whispers, feelings. I thought I was going mad, but it’s you. It’s always you.”

He stepped forward. Slowly and deliberately.

I didn’t move.

“Impossible,” he growled.

“Maybe,” I said, voice trembling. “But it’s happening.”

Kane stood inches from me now. His presence thundered in my chest. My knees nearly buckled.

“You’re not marked,” he murmured.

“I’m nothing,” I whispered.

“No,” he said. “You’re something I don’t understand.”

The bond trembled between us, stretching, thinning, threatening to snap or seal us forever.

I stepped back. He let me.

But as I turned to leave, one final thought slipped through my mind, so clear, so loud, it nearly knocked me to the floor.

“If she’s the one… we’re all damned.”