67

67
Jaden's POV

The night had grown restless. Clouds rolled across the sky like shadows with teeth, choking the moonlight until the world seemed swallowed whole. I sat alone in the chamber that passed for my prison, back pressed to the cold stone wall, fists clenched against my knees. My skin burned where the mark linked me to her, a steady throb that refused to quiet.
Thalia.
Her name pulsed with every heartbeat. The bond had always whispered, but tonight it roared. I’d felt her fear hours ago—sharp, raw, laced with fire—and I’d nearly torn through the guards just to reach her. Something had clawed at her spirit, dragging her into my world, and for a breathless instant I had thought she would never find her way back.
Now, even with distance between us, I still felt the echo. The phantom weight of her cries rattled inside me, rattling worse than chains.
I raked a hand through my hair, the strands damp with sweat. I’d told myself a thousand times that this bond was nothing but a curse, a tether meant to break me. But every time she bled through my thoughts, I couldn’t bring myself to sever it. I should want it gone. I should want her gone. Instead, the need to feel her presence gnawed at me like hunger.
The door scraped open.
I didn’t lift my head at first, assuming it was another guard come to toss food on the table like scraps to a starving beast. But the air shifted, and the scent hit me—sharp, metallic, heavy with the tang of authority. Elder Korrin.
“Still pacing your cage, wolf?” His voice dripped disdain.
I pushed to my feet, meeting his gaze. His eyes gleamed in the torchlight, hard as flint. He studied me like one might a weapon too dangerous to leave lying around.
“What do you want?” My voice came out low, rough from disuse.
“Information.” He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. “About the girl.”
Every muscle in my body coiled. “Thalia.”
The faint curl of his lip told me he hadn’t expected me to say her name like that—like it mattered.
“She was summoned tonight,” he said, his tone deliberate, testing. “The council wished to hear her answers, see her weakness. Do you know what we heard she cried out in her chamber?”
My chest tightened. I already knew, though hearing it from his mouth twisted the knife.
“She called your name,” Korrin said softly, savoring it like venom. “Over and over. In front of witnesses. The pack already whispers. They say she is bound to you beyond control, that your corruption seeps through her.”
A growl tore from my throat before I could stop it, the sound reverberating through the room. The guards outside stirred, but Korrin only smiled, thin and cruel.
“You hate it, don’t you? That your mark has stained her so deeply the others believe she belongs to you.”
Belongs to me. The words ignited something I couldn’t name. Rage, yes—but also something darker, hungrier. I hated him for speaking it, hated myself for wanting it to be true.
I stepped closer until the air between us crackled with the heat of my fury. “If they lay blame on her, they’ll answer to me.”
Korrin laughed softly. “You speak as if you still hold power here. You’re caged, wolf. Nothing more. If she is judged unfit, she’ll be dealt with—one way or another.”
The bond flared then, white-hot, as if it understood his threat before I did. My vision bled to red. For a heartbeat I wasn’t in the chamber—I was with her, feeling the weight of the council’s eyes on her, the sting of their words. She stood there trembling but unbroken, and I wanted to rip through the walls to stand beside her.
The image vanished, but the rage remained. I lunged.
Korrin’s eyes widened as my hand slammed him back against the wall, claws digging into the stone near his throat. The guards burst in, shouting, but I didn’t look away from him.
“If she bleeds because of you, I’ll burn this place to the ground,” I snarled, every word trembling with the bond’s fury.
The guards wrestled at me, but the curse within me surged, lending me strength I hadn’t felt in weeks. It took three of them to pry me back, chains rattling as they forced me down. Korrin smoothed his robe with shaking hands, though his smirk never fully faltered.
“You prove my point,” he said, voice thin but triumphant. “You’re losing control. She will, too. And when you both fall, the council will have justification to destroy you.”
The guards dragged him out, the door slamming shut again. My chest heaved with fury, with the sting of failure, but beneath it all one truth remained steady as the pulse of the bond.
She had defended herself. I’d felt it. Heard it in the echo of her voice through the tether. She hadn’t surrendered, no matter what venom the elders spat at her.
I sank back against the wall, chains clinking as I slid to the floor. The bond hummed softer now, like a heartbeat pressed against mine.
“They’ll never trust you,” I whispered to the space where her presence lingered. “But I do.”
For the first time in months, the curse inside me didn’t feel like an enemy—it felt like a vow.
And vows, once spoken, could not be broken.