The First Binding Novels & Stories

He took my hand in his, looking up at me with so much love it felt like the sun had moved closer to the earth. "Kesley," he said, his voice steady but full of emotion. "Our first marriage was born out of a contract. It was a deal made in a boardroom to protect a company and a name. It was full of shadows, secrets, and a lot of fear. I don't want that to be our only beginning."

Nicole looked at the clock in the room and said, “I’m kind of in a hurry so I’ll make my story brief and comprehensive. After breaking your heart, I owe you an explanation my darling Muhammad.” Muhammad tried switching on the radio on his belt, in hope that anyone on the other end could listen to the conversation if the signal was restored. If Maryam and he were going to die tonight, their death might as well not be in vain. The most important thing was revealing the real identity of The First One.

The smallness was clarifying, in a terrible way — there was no ambiguity about your role when your role was essentially absence. Here the absence of assignment felt, on bad mornings, like floating. Like nothing was holding her in place. She was starting to understand that was the point. She opened the historical records she had been reading on and off since the second day — the Iron Veil's founding documents, the original charter, the bloodline records of the first Alpha families. She had been returning to them without fully understanding why, something snagging each time in a section she had not yet resolved. She found the page.

The world seemed to disappear as we stood looking at each other. Athina stirred restlessly inside of me, the pull between me and Logan became almost unbearable. Without thinking, I reached out to touch him. As our skin touched, it was as if time stood still and a golden string of light that only we could see appeared between us. It connected us. It was so delicate, yet it pulsed with a force that took the air out of my lungs. Logan’s eyes widened, “You…” The bond, the mate bond was official. It was no longer just a feeling, it was real. Undeniably real.

I said. I stepped back. “No, that’s not possible.” But even as I said it, my bones sang with truth. My skin burned where the fire wanted out. “I’m not some ancient—” “You were the first to bind the Gate,” the Seer said. “The first to bleed for it.” “And the first to survive it,” Riven said quietly. The Seer nodded. “You burned your name into the stone before the wolves were kings. You wrote the prophecy the Elders now fear. Three threads. One flame.”

I cut her off, laughing. "Those silly proverbs... You're such a silly little girl." She just kept staring at me as I talked, and I knew she could see the fangs in my teeth. "You must be the abomination everyone talks about. Oh, what have I gotten myself into? How did I get entangled with him?" She said aloud. "Go to sleep now. You will feel great pain when burning to ashes, but remember, this is for us. When you grow up, you will feel this bond between you and me." Tying her hands and legs, I left her on the colored floor, where lines had been drawn. "Master, your blood," one of the council members asked, with his head facing the floor.

Something closer to fear. "The binding core." Silence. Even the chaos outside seemed to fade for a moment. Rowan frowned. "I’ve never heard of it." "You weren’t supposed to," Kael said. "What does it do?" Kael hesitated. Just for a second. Then "It controls the bonds." Rowan went still. "What?" Kael stepped closer, voice low, urgent. "It’s ancient. Older than the academy. It was used to create the first blade bonds. To stabilize them. To control them."

Binding magic was not something done without reason. It was used when power became dangerous, when it grew beyond what the body could hold without breaking. It could seal magic away completely, forcing it into silence until the time came for it to return. The words settled heavier the more I read, each line making it harder to ignore the connection forming in my chest. There were different kinds of bindings. Some were temporary, meant to hold something back for a short time. Others were weaker, fading slowly over the years. But then there were stronger ones, deeper ones, the kind that could last through a lifetime if they were done correctly.

She held it carefully by the edges, her breath catching as she stared down at the handwritten script illuminated by our single lantern. "The First House," she read slowly. "A genealogy of the original bloodline, before the schism split it into Ironfang and Frostbound." She looked up, something cold settling behind her eyes. "This traces the line all the way to a single founding pair. And there's a section here, recently disturbed, about what the text calls the binding's true anchor." "Meaning what," Isla asked, stepping over to peer across Bridie's shoulder. "Meaning every reunification since, ours included, was never actually a new bond," Wynn said, understanding arriving with visible dread

“It won’t.” “And me?” she whispered. “What happens to me?” Jackson closed the distance between them in two strides, his hands gripping her arms, not hurting, but grounding her in place. “You,” he said, voice low, thick with something she’d never heard from him, “are now tied to me in a war you didn’t ask for. And I swear to you, ” He swallowed hard. “I will not let my father use you. I will not let him touch you. I will not let him break you.”