The wind howled again, the air shimmered.
She felt heat, strangely familiar and wild...and suddenly Jedrek was above her, ripping the beast off with a snarl. His form shifted midair, bones cracking, fangs baring and fur expanding all across his skin. He became massive, silver, monstrous, deadly but breathtaking.
The true form of a Lycan prince.
He tore through the pack like a storm, but they were too many.
Eleanor crawled towards the cabin, reaching for a strange dagger she had seen on the mantel earlier. She grabbed it just as a bloodfang lunged at Jedrek from behind baring its fang on his neck.
"Jedrek!" she screamed and threw it.
The dagger hit its mark sinking deep into the beasts neck.
Jedrek turned, bloodied, panting but alive. The rest of the pack hesitated. They knew!
The girl was not just marked.
She was dangerous, no ordinary human could kill a Lycan without powers.
The rest of the bloodfangs vanished into the trees, dragging their wounded.
Jedrek shifted back slowly, his bones snapping, large furs disappearing, staggering toward her.
"You saved me," he whispered.
"I had to," she said. "we do not wanna die yet, I think…we are in this together now."
He looked at her, gaze soft, frowning.
"That is the problem," he said quietly. "Together is what will get both of us killed."
Eleanor sat on the old cabin floor, watching the fire crackle in the hearth. Her hands still trembled from the fight, but her mind was racing faster than her pulse.
Across from her, Jedrek was silent, hunched over with a bloodsoaked cloth pressed to his side. The firelight made his eyes seem more human but no less haunted.
"You lied to me," she said, breaking the silence. "About the bond."
Jedrek didn't look at her. "I did not lie" He answered lazily "I just didn't tell you everything."
"Same thing."
He winced...not from the wound, but from her voice…he could sense the emotion behind her question.
Eleanor stood. "I have a right to know. You said I smelled like rain, like peace. You said fate wasn't kind. Then that beast said I was marked. What does that mean, Jedrek?"
He finally looked up, those silver eyes flickered… "It means you are mine."
The words hit her like ice.
"Yours?"
"Our souls…they are tied. The moment I bled in front of you, and you did not run, when you touched me, when you chose to stay... the bond began to form. It is rare. Sacred. Dangerous."
Her mouth was dry, she stood there, confused. "So what, we are…what…destined lovers?"
He scoffed. "It is not as pretty as that. The bond makes us drawn to each other. Stronger together. But if either of us breaks it, if one dies, the other follows."
Eleanor stared. "So you are saying…if I die, you die?"
"Yes."
"And if you die?"
"I take you with me."
She backed away, her heart pounding again, but not from fear. From the crushing weight of something she never asked for.
"This is insane," she whispered.
"I tried to leave," he said, voice low. "The moment I saw you. I felt it. I knew. That was why I said you were not supposed to see me. I knew the bond will begin."
"Then why did you not let me go?"
"Because," he said, looking up at her, eyes wild with something between longing and grief, "I think I'm selfish, I started falling for you…before the bond ever touched us."
The fire crackled between them, the silence deeper than before.
And outside, the moon watched them like a silent witness to a story that had barely begun…and was already doomed.
The cabin had become colder now. The fire had burned low, casting flickering shadows that danced across the walls like silent ghosts. Eleanor sat by the window, arms wrapped around her knees, eyes fixed on the dark line of trees just beyond the clearing.
Jedrek hadn't said a word since his last confession. Not about the bond. Not about what followed next.
And Eleanor…she didn't know what to feel. Anger? Fear? Confusion?
No, It was not fear.
It was the terrifying weight of connection. One that hadn't asked her permission.
He was pacing now. Restless. Caged. A storm in a man's body.
"You are going to wear a hole in the floor," she muttered.
Jedrek stopped midway, head turning towards her. His eyes glowed faintly in the shadows. "You are angry."
"No kidding."
He tilted his head slightly. "Do you want me to break it?..The bond?"
Eleanor blinked. "You can do that?"
His jaws clenched. "Yes. But it will hurt. You more than me. And it is irreversible."
She hesitated. The idea of freedom tempted her. A clean break. No more fated ties. No more fear of been hunted because of someone else war.
But deep in her heart, the thought of loosing him left a hollow ache. Even if she barely knew him, it felt like he had been she had known him all her life.
"…What happens if I don't want you to break it?"
Jedrek looked away. "Then you are mine and I am yours. Till death and beyond."
"Romantic," she said dryly.
"It was never meant to be a romance," he replied, his voice laced with bitterness. "It was survival. A way for Lycans to find strength in union. But over time, it became something sacred….something… dangerous."
He stepped closer kneeling in front of her. "I should've left before you ever saw me. But the moment you looked at me…I knew I would not be able to stay away from…"
She met his keen gaze, his ears pricked… "from what?"
Jedrek opened his mouth to answer, then froze.
His nostrils flared.
"What?" she asked, instantly alert.
His voice dropped into a whisper. "we are not alone."
Eleanor stood, heart hammering. A prickle danced along her skin. The kind that warns of lightening and ghosts.
The scent of ash and damp earth crept in, subtle and sudden.
A moment later, the cabin door creaked open, and in walked a woman dressed in black, hooded, her presence sharp as frost.
Jedrek stiffened. "Iria"