All Chapters of The Binding: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The Scent of StormsThe smell of everything was too much, overwhelming almost. By the time I reached the school I was white knuckling the bathroom sink, breathing through my mouth like a gaping fish. Soaps, perfumes, Someone’s too strong cologne. My senses were in overdrive–almost violent. What the fuck is happening to me?Every sound scraped against my skull, every smell clawed its way down my throat, everything was changing and I didn’t know how to stop it.I avoided class for as long as I could. Wandering the halls, pacing like an animal that had been caged for too long. When I finally slipped into first period, heads turned. And not because I was late, but because I was different. Even they could feel it.Eirik showed up at lunch, he didn’t say anything at first. Just sat down across from me, eyes tracking every twitch of my body. “You’re not okay.”“Yeah, no shit,” I muttered. “Something is happening to me, I can smell things I shouldn’t be able to smell from across the room. It’

Before*Eira-seventeen years ago*The moon was high—bloated and pale, casting a cold silver glow over the forest floor. Wind rushed through the tall trees, whispering in tongues that only the old magic could remember.So I ran.Not from fear–but towards something. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, only that my chest burned with a sudden and strange urgency, my steps guiding me by instinct and something deeper, something ancient.I should have turned back hours ago.These woods belonged to the pack—and witches who trespassed on their territory were rarely shown any mercy. But tonight? Something made the veil between things feel thin. And something was calling for me.I slowed when the smell reached my nose, iron, smoke, blood, and flesh.I crouched low, brushing my fingers over a streak of it smeared across snow and moss. It was still warm, whatever it had belonged to had passed through here only mere minutes ago.A branch cracked to my left, I froze.And then saw…him. Half-collaps

Between the Beast and the FlameMy breath tore from my lungs in sharp, broken bursts, like the forest itself was too tight around me. Knees buried in the frozen dirt, hands clawing at the earth, I could feel the bones in my body grinding against themselves, unsure of what shape they wanted to take. Gold flickered across my skin in jagged veins of light. White fur rippled over my arms, crawling, receding, rising again. My jaw snapped once—twice—fighting the shape of teeth that didn’t belong to this version of me. And still Eirik held me tightly.“I can’t!” I screamed, voice hoarse and barely human. “I can’t control it–I don’t know what’s happen-“You don’t have to fight it alone, angel.” his voice ragged, close, but steady. “I can feel you Saxa, you don’t have to choose–just feel. Let her help you.”“No!” My fingers sparked, the earth beneath me cracking from the heat. “This is going to tear me apart.”“Then let me help you, let my wolf help..”Eirik stepped back, just far enough that

The BreakI don’t remember lunging, I just remembered the burning hot rage. And then–motion. The forest whipping past, claws slicing through the air. Teeth bared so wide my jaw cracked. Elias’ scent is everywhere, in my lungs, in my throat, my bones.I swear to all that is holy, I’m going to rip him limb from limb.Because if I can’t make sense of the bombshell that he just dropped on me then I’ll destroy it, destroy him. I’ll burn the truth from anyone’s ears before it burns me. But then—he looks at me. Not with fear, not with magic raised in defense, but with something that just stops me, cold. Something even older than the wolf inside of me. His voice cuts through the clearing, quiet, centered. “Remember who.”And just like that, my whole word explodes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gold light bursts from inside of me, not just my magic and not just my wolf.But both.

BloodlineGran’s body is lifeless on the floor, Eirik kneels beside her, checking her pulse, whispering something low and urgent that I can’t make out through the pounding in my ears. The phone still hanging limp from my fingers.That voice, the one word.My name.. My father said my name.The phone slips from my grip, clattering to the floor, but I don’t hear it land. I’m already moving, dropping to my knees beside gran, reaching out to her. Terrified and furious but still aching all at once.The second my hands touches her skin—My head jerks back, like a cord just snapped tight around my spine.My lungs seize. The room, the sound, the light–al of it vanished with a single, bone-snapping instant.I don’t fall–I plunge. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Snow, pine, firelight dancing across frost-covered stones. It feels real, not like a dream, not like the vision that came