All Chapters of The Binding: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

ShadowboundSaxaThe next morning feels like walking through mist—nothing felt solid beneath my feet. I could still feel the echo of last night's ‘dream.’ Gran always calls them visions, but whatever the hell it was I could still feel the power humming like a phantom along my skin. And worse, I could still feel the power humming like a phantom along my skin.And worse, I could still see Elias’ face when he looked at me—when my eyes weren't mine. Every scent seeps into me like a searing hot knife, but I’m getting better at ignoring the small ones. It was just the big ones—the emotions, the tension, the flickers of instinct—that rattles me To my core. Eirik is waiting for me by my locker. For someone who doesn’t even go to school anymore he’s here more than I would expect. There’s something new in the expression on his face. Not softness, readiness.“You had a vision,” he says, but it wasn’t a question.How?How did this man know everything that happens with me before I have even made

The Thing Inside *present*SaxaThe fire had long since burned down to coals, casting soft flickers against the porch rails and painting everything around in a golden shadow. I sat with my knees pulled to my chest, wrapped up in Eirik’s jacket, pretending like I wasn’t hyperaware of the way my shoulder kept brushing against mine every time he moved. He hadn’t said anything in sometime—not since Gran went to bed, not since the quiet settled heavily around us, but he hadn’t left either.The silence between us wasn’t empty though, in thrummed—tense, unspoken, waiting.Like the world knew something was about to break apart.Eirik’s fingers drum lightly against my thigh, then stilled, hand resting lightly on my leg, making fireworks shoot through my body. He exhales, slow and steady. “You’ve been quiet..”“So have you.”“I don’t want to push, not after… not after everything.” he says, voice low.Everything.The bookstore, the woods, my twin, my visions, the bond.My heart gave a painful twi

Not MineSaxaThe moment his scent hits the wind, my body locks, muscles coil, paws plant in the ground.Not in fear, in warning.Eirk’s wolf lets out a low rumble—not hostile, just alert. A subtle shift in his weight, his body angling between me and the trees.My ears pin back, my nose flares. I know his scent, better than anything. But my wolf doesn’t. To her, he wasn’t safe. He was static. He doesn’t move, just stands there in the shadows—arms crossed, hood up. Still as the tree line behind him. But something in him.. The air around him.. It’s wrong. Too still, too quiet. My claws flex into the earth.Eirik moves closer, brushing his flank against mine. A soft huff rumbling from his chest—a reassurance that he’s here, that I’m not alone in this. But my gaze stays locked on Elias. He doesn’t flinch, not when my eyes narrow, not when I bare my teeth, not even when the power under my skin sparks gold again, flickering like a second pulse beneath my fur. He’s just watching.Not scared,

What You’ve Been HidingSaxaThe front door groans as Eirik helps me inside, one arm wrapped firmly around my waist, the other gripping my wrist like he’s afraid I’ll vanish.My legs barely work, my skin feels too tight. The world is too loud, too bright, too new.But I make it through the door, the second I do—“Where the hell have you been?” Gran’s voice slices through the dark like a blade.She’s on her feet before my eyes even adjust to the lighting. Her hair wild, robe half open, a fury blazing in her eyes. I flinch while Eirik’s grip tightens to the oversized sweatshirt he threw over my head since my clothes were shredded.“Gran,” I breathe, but it’s not a greeting, it’s a warning.“Do you have ANY idea what time it is?? Do you know all of the things that have been racing through my mind—”“Stop.” I snap.The sound of my voice reverberates off the walls, stilling the room.I twist out of Eirik’s grasp, standing on my own even though my knees are seconds away from buckling beneath

The Weight of it AllSaxaEirik’s eyes don’t leave mine. Everything is still, no forest whisper. No ancient feeling surging through my bones. Just the two of us, sitting in the dim light of the kitchen floor, breathing the same shattered air.His hands reach for mine—slow, steady—and when his fingers finally close around mine, something inside of me finally breaks. The sob catches in my throat before I can stop it.Then another, and another. Until I’m collapsing into his chest, shaking with the weight of everything I’ve tried to hold back.“It’s too much,” I whisper to him. “Eirik, it’s—it’s just too much. Every time I think I understand who I am, the ground shifts underneath me. I don’t even know who I am, I-I think my dad is alive. I have no idea who my Gran is. Elias is my twin that I never even knew I had.. There’s magic in my blood and a wolf in my bones and now—Kaia, whoever the hell she is, knew about me, knew about all of it. And no one told me a goddamn thing about it.”His ar