The first time it hit me, I thought it was just the moon.

A tremor, faint at first, like the world holding its breath. But then it grew — low and pulsing, deep in my chest where my wolf lived.

It wasn’t painful exactly. More like being seen.

I dropped my blade mid-swing, the training field tilting under my feet. The scent of metal and sweat blurred, replaced by something I hadn’t felt in years — wild, electric, wrong.

The bond.

I bit down hard, forcing air through my lungs. No. It couldn’t be. The bond had burned out with the rest of my world. I buried it with my father’s body, in the ashes of Silverfang.

“Lyra?” Kane’s voice cut through the haze. “You good?”

I blinked up at him, forcing my hands to steadily. “Fine. Just—lost focus.”

He studied me for a long moment. That man could read silence like a book. But he only nodded, eyes flicking toward the tree line. “Then regain it. You’re leading the next patrol.”

________________________________________

The forest felt different that night. The air was thick, alive, whispering secrets I wasn’t ready to hear.

We followed the river south, toward the old borders. The pups who’d once found me here were warriors now — loyal, fierce. They trusted me to lead them. To protect them.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching.

Every step closer to the ridge made the pull stronger. My heartbeat synchronized to a rhythm that wasn’t mine, a pulse echoing through the bond I’d sworn was dead.

When we reached the clearing, the scent hit me with full force smoke, pine, and something darker underneath. A memory dressed in sin and steel.

Nightbane.

And layered beneath it, faint but impossible to miss, him.

I doubled over, claws digging into the earth as the wolf inside me roared awake. Images flashed — moonlight on blood, eyes like storms, the weight of a killing blow that never should’ve landed.

My father’s voice.

My own scream.

And a stranger’s scent tangled in it all.

Ronan.

The name struck like lightning. I didn’t know how I knew it — only that my blood answered when I whispered it.

The others didn’t notice. They were too busy examining the carved sigil on the tree, the mark of Nightbane territory.

“Lyra?” Mara — now my lieutenant — glanced back. “You smell that?”

“Just the border,” I lied, wiping sweat from my brow. “Keep your eyes open. We’re not alone.”

________________________________________

Back at camp, Kane waited. He was leaning against the gate, arms crossed, moonlight catching the scars that mapped his jaw.

“Report,” he said.

I told him about the sigil, the border scent, the growing aggression in Nightbane territory. I didn’t mention the bond, or the way my heart still raced like I’d been hunted.

He listened in silence, then nodded. “They’re testing us. I want you to take a small team south — no more than four. Move quietly. Find out what they’re planning.”

I hesitated. “You want me to cross the border?”

“I want you to see what’s waiting,” he said. “You’ve got instincts I trust. Don’t make me regret it.”

I bowed my head. “I won’t.”

________________________________________

That night, sleep didn’t come. The bond hummed beneath my skin like a living thing, restless and hungry. Every breath I took felt shared, stolen. Somewhere out there, the other half of this connection was awake — and he was pulling me closer.

I lay beneath the window, moonlight slicing across my face, and whispered to the darkness,

“You survived too, didn’t you?”

The wind outside shifted, carrying that scent again — faint, wild, undeniable.

If this was fate, then it was a cruel one.

Because when I find him, I don’t know if I’ll kiss him…

or kill him.