All Chapters of Bound By The Moon's Curse : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

LenaThe insane quiet around me was wrong.It felt like the peace before a storm.I lay back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling above my bed, counting my breaths the way the healer had taught me. In through my nose and out through my mouth. Slow enough to keep the pain from flaring and hopefully slow enough to keep my thoughts from wandering where they didn’t belong.I hated every one here with my guts, but as the hours go by I have to accept that they're my best chance of getting better. And the soon in better and our of here, the better. But now in the quiet of the room, my thoughts finally played back last night. I remembered how I was struggling to keep myself conscious and then I blacked out. If it wasn't for Adrian and that bond, then maybe I won't even be alive. I swallowed and turned my head toward the window. Just then, a strange cold crept in.The cold felt empty. It was a hollow chill that shivered through my skin.My wolf stirred up and my instincts spiked

ADRIAN’S POVIronclaw never slept.I could feel the unrest in the pack and with good reason. War was coming… The Moonfang wanted Lena, but I wasn't giving, not yet. I stood in front of the window overlooking the lower ward of the pack, my hands pressed against the cold stone. Lena… The Eion had touched her.It had reached through me to do it.My jaw tightened as the memory of its presence slammed back. It was after our bond. It was like an invisible claw hooking into my chest and dragging at me. It was agony. Just then a knock sounded behind me.I didn’t turn, I knew who it was. “Come in.”Kai stepped into the chamber, the door closing softly at his back. “She’s stable now,” he said. “The healers said that the attack affected her recovery but she'll be okay.”I exhaled through my nose. “And the bond? What did they have to say about it?”Kai hesitated and that told me enough.“It’s still there,” he said carefully. “But it’s… thinner. It was like the thing scraped some agains

ADRIAN’S POVThe decision was mine the moment I made it.War was coming whether I wanted it or not. The only question left was whether I was going to let it happen with a little touch of diplomacy.I sent the message at dawn summoning the Moonfang Pack. You want your daughter. Come hear why she stays.Neutral ground. Council chamber. One hour before dusk.Elias Carter didn’t reply.He didn’t need to, I knew he got the message. By the time the sun began to lower and the darkness crept in, Ironclaw was already braced for impact.The council chamber had been cleared of anything unnecessary. All that was left was a single long table placed at the center. I had Ironclaw guards lined up on each perimeter but standing at a measured distance. They were there if things got out of hand, but only ‘if’Kai stood at my right.Ulfric’s seat remained empty.He wasn’t coming. Why would he? “Moonfang approaches,” a scout murmured from the doorway. “Six representatives.and each one of them armed

LENA POV The sound that tore out of my throat wasn’t a scream.It was something rawer and feral.But, Adrian moved before I could even process what was happening.One second, two bodies were charging at me, their faces tinged with hate and rage that I've hardly seen before, their boots pounding on the ground and then, in the next, the world around me shifted. The sudden shift of power shook me off and when my vision cleared, Adrian had them both.One fist around each of their throats.He’d lifted them off the ground as if they weighed nothing. Their feet dangled inches above the stone, their toes flicking uselessly, their bodies jerking as they clawed at his wrists. “They touched you,” he said, voice terrifyingly calm.“No, they didn't…” I answered, my voice small, smaller than I would have liked. One of the attackers choked struggling for air, his nails digging into Adrian’s forearm. “We.. we were ordered—I swear—”Adrian’s fingers tightened around thier necks, the small air the

LENA’S POVThe clearing I stood in, felt wrong, in every single way possible.It wasn't hostile, it was much worse than that. It felt like a near pin drop away from exploding and chaos erupting. Ironclaw stood to one side, disciplined and silent, their lines clean and controlled. Moonfang gathered opposite them, looser and much restless. The space between them was wide enough to be a battlefield, narrow enough to ignite.And I stood right in the middle of it.I barely registered the sound of boots or the weight of eyes until I saw him.My father.Elias Carter stood just beyond the Moonfang line, tall and unyielding as ever, his silver-streaked hair pulled back, his shoulders squared as if he’d walked into this clearing ready to tear it apart. For a heartbeat, he didn’t move.Neither did I.We stared at each other across the space like the last survivors of a burning house. And then slowly but surely we began to take careful steps across the other as the rest of the field watched