Chapter 2. Bound by Fire

The next morning, the house was quiet.

Too quiet.

Aria lay on the attic floor, wide awake, staring at the slanted ceiling. Dust drifted through a shaft of light cutting across the wood, the world outside already humming with life.

Inside, everything felt… still. Like the air had stopped breathing.

She clutched the silver crest in her fist, the one Kade had given her. A wolf swallowing fire. It didn’t glow. Didn’t hum. Just sat cold in her palm like a warning etched in metal.

“I never said I was fair.”

His voice echoed, dark and sharp, slicing into every thought. He hadn’t rejected her. But he hadn’t claimed her either.

It was a half-death. A sentence without trial.

She sat up and winced. Her wrist throbbed from yesterday—her stepfather’s grip still blooming purple under her sleeve. She pulled her hoodie down, tied her hair up, and headed for the door.

No breakfast. No goodbye. She didn’t expect either.

***

At school, everything had changed.

It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t obvious. But she felt it the moment she stepped onto campus.

People looked at her.

She wasn’t sure how they knew. Maybe someone had seen the moment in the hallway. Maybe they’d just guessed.

But the stares were real. Sharp. Curious. Dismissive.

She passed a group of girls at the lockers—Cassandra among them—snickering with cups of coffee like this was some morning gossip show.

“She looks tired,” one said.

“She always looks tired,” Cassandra added. “It’s kind of her brand.”

Aria kept walking.

In the hallway, someone bumped her shoulder hard enough to knock her back.

“Oh, sorry,” a boy said with zero sincerity.

“Watch it,” Aria muttered.

He grinned. “Oh, she talks now.”

Before she could respond, a hand caught the boy by the collar and slammed him into the locker with a crash loud enough to make half the hallway flinch.

Kade.

His eyes were molten silver.

“Touch her again,” he said calmly, “and you’ll eat through a straw.”

The hallway went silent.

The boy nodded furiously, and Kade dropped him like trash.

Then, without a glance at Aria, he walked off.

***

By lunch, the rumors had evolved.

“Kade’s got a temper.”

“He almost killed someone this morning.”

“He’s protecting someone. They say it’s her.”

“Her? No way.”

Aria sat outside, away from the crowds, under the crooked old pine tree near the science building. She liked the solitude. The sharp scent of pine needles calmed her wolf, who was still pacing inside her mind, agitated and confused.

Why protect me if he doesn’t want me?

She pulled out the pin again. It caught the sunlight like a blade. Kade didn’t make sense. His every action contradicted the last. One moment cold, the next violent in her defense.

“You’re a popular topic today.”

She looked up.

A girl stood nearby, balancing a tray and a stack of books. She had short red hair, sharp cheekbones, and a hoodie three sizes too big.

“Mind if I sit?”

Aria nodded, cautiously.

“I’m Jules,” the girl said. “I sit where it’s quiet.”

Aria gave a small smile. “Aria.”

“I know.”

Jules bit into her sandwich. “They say you’re the girl he almost went feral over.”

“I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“Of course not. That’s what makes it interesting.”

They sat in silence for a while.

Jules finally said, “He’s dangerous. But you already know that, don’t you?”

Aria looked at the pin again. “Yeah. I do.”

***

Last period was combat theory.

It wasn’t real fighting—just partner drills and control exercises. Still, Aria dreaded it. Her body still ached, and her concentration was in shambles.

She changed in the locker room without speaking. Most of the girls pretended she didn’t exist. A few stared like they were waiting for something embarrassing to happen.

When she entered the training gym, Kade was already there.

He stood near the instructor, arms crossed, dressed in black training gear. His presence sucked the air out of the room.

The instructor clapped his hands. “We’ve got a special guest today. Mr. Locke will be evaluating your form.”

Groans and whispers followed.

The class was paired off.

Aria ended up with Liam Decker—a cocky wolf with too many muscles and not enough brain. He smirked the moment he saw her.

“Easy match,” he said. “Try not to cry when I pin you.”

“I won’t,” she replied. “You’ll be too busy eating the mat.”

A few students snorted.

They squared up.

The instructor called, “Begin!”

Aria ducked his first swing, slid low, and swept his leg—but he was fast. He twisted midair and came down behind her, grabbing her arm in a painful lock.

She struggled. Her wolf growled.

Liam leaned in, grinning. “Knew you’d be feisty. Bet he likes that.”

Aria’s vision narrowed.

She spun, stomped hard on his foot, and elbowed him in the ribs. He grunted. The grip loosened. She flipped him over her shoulder, and he hit the mat with a thud.

Silence.

Kade stepped forward, eyes locked on Liam.

“She wins,” he said flatly. “You’re sloppy.”

Then he turned to Aria. For a brief second, something flickered behind his eyes. Approval? Regret? She couldn’t tell.

“Again,” he said. “Different partner.”

***

By the end of class, Aria was dripping sweat, her hair plastered to her neck, muscles screaming. But she stood tall. Strong. She hadn’t needed Kade to save her. Not this time.

In the hallway after class, he was waiting.

“You fight better than you look,” he said.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.”

He shrugged. “Didn’t say I couldn’t insult you.”

“Wow. Charming.”

“I try.”

They walked in silence for a few steps.

“I didn’t expect you to defend me,” she said.

“I didn’t do it for you.”

She stopped walking.

He turned to face her.

“Then why?”

He exhaled through his nose. “Because you’re mine. Whether I like it or not.”

Her breath caught.

“I won’t claim you,” he said. “But no one touches what’s mine.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Nothing about this does.”

He looked at her like he hated it. Hated her. But beneath that… there was pain.

“I never had a choice, Aria,” he said quietly. “But neither did you.”

Then he was gone again.

***

That night, as she lay awake under her thin blanket, her wolf spoke again.

‘He burns. And so do you.’

***

Aria didn’t head straight home after school. Her head was too loud. Her skin still hummed from every word Kade had said—or refused to say. And her wolf was pacing again, restless and growling low in the back of her mind.

Instead, she wandered to the edge of the campus forest. The trees here were tall and crooked, ancient pines that whispered with wind. It was a place few students bothered to go—too gloomy, too quiet. She liked that.

She climbed onto a low boulder and sat with her knees pulled up, watching the gray clouds churn above.

Footsteps behind her made her turn.

Not Kade.

Cassandra.

Perfect hair, perfect smirk, perfect aim as she tossed a crumpled paper cup at Aria’s feet.

“What’s it like,” she began, “knowing he’d rather gnaw off his own arm than claim you?”

Aria didn’t flinch.

Cassandra laughed. “You should’ve seen yourself in training today. All huffy and bruised. He pitied you, that’s all.”

Aria stood, calm but firm. “Is that what you told yourself after he didn’t look twice at you?”

Something dark flickered in Cassandra’s eyes.

Before either could say more, a figure stepped out from the trees.

Logan Vane. Tall, broad-shouldered, Beta-born. Loyal to the Northfangs. And dangerously smug.

“Ladies,” he drawled, eyes lingering a beat too long on Aria. “Didn’t your mommy teach you not to fight in the woods? Bad things happen in the dark.”

Cassandra immediately shifted her posture—straightened her spine, tilted her chin. Flirt mode engaged.

“Logan,” she purred. “You look tense. Want me to rub—”

“Not now,” he said, dismissing her like furniture.

He took a step toward Aria.

She stiffened.

“You’re the new mystery girl,” he said. “The one who’s got our Alpha all… distracted.”

“I’m nobody.”

“That’s the problem. Nobody shouldn’t have power.”

He took another step.

“Back off,” she said.

He smiled. “Or what?”

A growl broke the silence.

It wasn’t hers.

Jules stepped out from behind a tree, arms folded, eyes glowing faintly amber. “She said back off.”

Logan raised a brow. “You gonna fight me, pixie?”

“No,” Jules said. “I’ll let her do it.”

Aria’s wolf surged to the surface.

She didn’t shift—not fully—but her eyes flashed silver, her breath came sharp, and her nails sharpened at the tips. Instinct took over. She didn’t step back. She stepped forward.

Logan blinked.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Guess the Alpha’s pet has teeth.”

He turned and vanished into the trees.

Aria’s pulse slowed.

Jules whistled. “Didn’t think you had that in you.”

“I didn’t either.”

They walked back together in silence.

At the edge of the woods, Jules paused.

“You know this won’t stop, right?”

Aria nodded. “Yeah.”

Jules handed her a small silver charm. “It’s warded. Won’t do much, but might keep betas like him at bay.”

Aria looked at it—shaped like a crescent fang.