Clara didn’t sleep.

Not when they moved Adrian to the reinforced room beneath the penthouse.

Not when Nikolai reinforced every lock.

Not when the moon finally dipped below the skyline, taking its crimson curse with it.

She sat beside Adrian’s unconscious body on the padded platform, staring at the steady rise and fall of his chest. His skin was too warm, almost feverish, and the shadows under his eyes were deep enough to swallow secrets whole.

He looked nothing like the billionaire tyrant who had signed her into a contract.

Nor the beast who almost tore the forest apart.

He looked… broken.

Nikolai returned hours later with two mugs of steaming tea and the haunted stillness of someone who had seen too much. He set one beside her.

“You’re shaking,” he murmured.

She hadn’t realized she was until he said it.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

Clara looked at Adrian again. “Why didn’t he tell me? Why hide something like this?”

Nikolai lowered himself to sit beside her. “Because Adrian doesn’t trust anyone with his weakness. Not even me.”

Clara swallowed. “And yet I’m the one caught in the middle of it.”

“You’re more than caught,” Nikolai said quietly. “You’re bound.”

Clara stared at her wrist—now fully marked, the crescent gleaming softly like it was alive beneath her skin. It felt warm, pulsing in sync with Adrian’s breath.

A tether she didn’t ask for.

A destiny she didn’t choose.

A truth she wasn’t ready for.

“…What does this bond actually mean?” she whispered.

Nikolai hesitated. For the first time since she met him, he looked… uncertain.

“It means you’re his mate,” he said finally. “The one the moon recognizes. The one the wolf obeys.” His voice dropped. “The one he’ll kill for—or die for.”

Clara’s throat tightened. “I don’t want anyone dying for me.”

“That’s not how it works.” Nikolai’s eyes were soft but unflinching. “A mate bond can’t be undone. It can be broken—but only by death.”

Clara felt the world tilt.

Death.

As if this nightmare wasn’t already suffocating enough.

She looked back down at Adrian, brushing a stray lock of dark hair from his forehead. His skin burned under her touch. He felt fragile and dangerous all at once.

“Will he wake up?”

“He will. But…” Nikolai exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair. “When he does, his wolf might be in control first. Not him.”

Clara stiffened. “Meaning?”

“He may not recognize friend from enemy. He might only recognize you.”

She didn’t know if that was comforting… or terrifying.

A low growl drifted through the room.

Clara and Nikolai both froze.

Adrian’s fingers twitched. His breath hitched. Muscles along his arms tightened, then released. The low rumble in his chest grew deeper, shaking the floor beneath them.

Nikolai stood instantly. “Clara, behind me.”

“No.” She reached out, gripping Adrian’s hand. “If he wakes scared or confused—he needs me.”

Nikolai opened his mouth to argue, but the decision was already made.

Adrian’s eyes snapped open.

Not silver.

Not human.

A molten mix—like metal in fire—shifting between forms.

His gaze locked onto Clara instantly.

He sat up so fast Nikolai moved into a defensive stance.

“Adrian—” she whispered.

He blinked once.

Then he came toward her with a sudden, sharp movement—almost predatory—but stopped inches from her face, chest heaving. He inhaled her scent like oxygen, like relief, like he was drowning and she was the surface.

“Clara…” His voice was hoarse, layered with something ancient. “You’re safe.”

She exhaled shakily. “You scared me.”

“I scared myself.” His hand brushed her cheek. “I could’ve hurt you.”

“But you didn’t.”

He laughed once—broken, guilt-ridden. “Only because you touched me. The moment your hand was on my skin, the wolf… stopped.”

He leaned his forehead against hers. It was intimate, almost unbearably so. A gesture that felt instinctive to him, unfamiliar to her.

Nikolai looked away.

“Adrian,” Clara said softly, “what’s happening to you?”

He drew in a slow breath. “My wolf is no longer bound. The curse shifted when the bond formed. I’ve been fighting this monster for years but—”

“Now it’s fighting you back,” she whispered.

He nodded. “And I’m losing.”

Clara tightened her grip on his hand. “Then we fight it together.”

Adrian lifted his head slowly, as if her words physically pulled him up from darkness.

“You shouldn’t want anything to do with this,” he murmured. “With me.”

“Too late,” Clara said, holding up her wrist. “Your magic—or whatever it is—didn’t exactly give me a choice.”

The faintest smile touched Adrian’s lips. But it didn’t reach his eyes.

Nikolai cleared his throat. “We need a plan. Adrian, if you can’t control the wolf—”

“I will,” Adrian growled. “I won’t let it touch her.”

“And if you can’t?” Nikolai countered.

Adrian looked at Clara again, pain flickering through his gaze. “Then I leave.”

The words hit her like ice.

“No,” Clara said immediately. “You don’t get to vanish and call it protection. You don’t get to decide everything alone.”

Adrian’s jaw clenched. “Clara—”

“No,” she repeated, louder. “I’m already in this. Whatever this bond is, it pulled me in. And if I’m your mate—like you and Nikolai keep saying—then you don’t get to face this curse without me.”

She stepped closer, heart pounding.

“We do this together.”

For a long moment, Adrian just stared at her.

Then slowly—fragilely—he reached up and cupped her cheek with one shaking hand.

“Clara Wren,” he whispered, “you are going to destroy me.”

But he didn’t pull away.

Not this time.

Nikolai watched them, something unreadable in his eyes—something like yearning buried beneath loyalty.

“Then it’s settled,” Nikolai said quietly. “We prepare for the next moon.”

Clara swallowed. “What happens on the next moon?”

Adrian met her gaze, voice low and dark.

“The wolf won’t just wake next time.”

His hand tightened in hers.

“It will claim.”

A chill raced up her spine.

But she didn’t look away.

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