Chapter 5. The King’s Territory

Selene woke to the sound of fire.

Not the loud crackling kind. Just the quiet hiss of embers shifting, a low pulse of heat in the room. Her skin was warm. Too warm. And not just from the fur blankets tangled around her bare legs.

Her heart was already beating too fast.

She sat up too quickly, instinct panicking before memory caught up.

Where—

The room was dim, lit only by the fire pit at the far wall. The stone ceiling arched high above her head, carved into rough, jagged patterns like roots frozen mid-thrash. The floor beneath the pelts was polished obsidian. The walls breathed cold air through vents in the mountain itself.

And the bed she was in—if you could even call it a bed—was a platform built into the wall, layered in thick animal furs, leather, and something that smelled like ancient incense and blood.

This wasn’t Moon Hollow.

This wasn’t anywhere she’d ever been.

Then the scent hit her. Heavy. Wild. Unmistakable.

Alaric.

Her body tensed.

She looked down. Her dress was gone. In its place: a thin gray shirt, oversized, hanging off one shoulder. Her mark still glowed faintly at her collarbone, visible in the firelight like moonlight trapped under skin.

She scrambled off the furs, barefoot, heart thundering. Her legs ached in strange places. Not pain—just a remembered pressure. The ghost of a touch.

Did he…?

Before she could finish the thought, a door she hadn’t seen creaked open.

Alaric walked in.

He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Again. His chest was inked with the same winding symbols, scars stretching down one side like claw marks. He held a steaming mug in one hand. Steam curled in the firelight.

“You’re awake,” he said.

She stared at him.

He crossed the space between them like he owned it—and her. His gaze raked over her body once, slow and unapologetic.

“Relax,” he said. “I didn’t touch you.”

“You undressed me.”

“I saved your life.”

She folded her arms tightly over her chest. “Where are we?”

“My home,” he said. “Deep in the Northern Ridge. Protected land. No one knows it’s here.”

“You took me.”

“You fainted.”

“You carried me off like a—like a prize!”

His expression didn’t change.

“I claimed you,” he said. “You belong to me. I won’t let the Elders break the bond.”

“I didn’t agree—”

“You didn’t disagree.”

“That’s not how consent works!”

His jaw clenched.

A beat of silence fell between them, thick and brittle.

Then, softer, he said, “Do you want to leave?”

She hesitated.

“I could take you back tonight,” he continued. “Drop you at the edge of Hollow Grounds. The bond will stay. But the Council will decide your fate. You’ll be stripped. Punished. Bound to Lucan or exiled completely. They don’t like wolves who disobey.”

Selene’s breath caught.

She didn’t want to go back. Not yet.

Not to Lucan’s fury.

Not to her father’s shame.

And not to a Council who’d already decided she was broken.

“…No,” she whispered. “Not yet.”

Alaric nodded once. He handed her the mug. She took it reluctantly. It smelled like herbs and pine resin, earthy and bitter.

He sat across from her, on the stone ledge that ran beneath the window slit.

She kept her distance.

“What happens now?” she asked quietly.

He looked at the fire for a long time before answering.

“The bond will deepen,” he said. “The longer we’re near each other, the more it roots. Right now, you can still walk away.”

She swallowed. “And later?”

“Later, it’ll hurt to be apart.”

He said it simply, like stating the weather.

Selene took a slow sip of the drink. It burned down her throat but calmed something low in her chest.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why me?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I didn’t expect… anyone. Not again.”

“Again?”

He didn’t speak.

But his eyes darkened.

She watched him for a long moment. His posture was relaxed, but every part of him radiated tension beneath the surface. Like a predator forced into stillness.

“Did you really kill them?” she asked quietly. “The Council?”

His eyes met hers.

And for the first time, she saw a flicker of pain.

“I didn’t kill my Council,” he said. “I was betrayed by them.”

“Then why let the world believe otherwise?”

He leaned forward.

“Because fear is more useful than truth.”

The fire crackled between them.

She looked down at the mark on her skin.

“How do I know this isn’t… some trick?”

“It’s not.”

“But how do I know what I’m feeling is real? What if the bond is just… magic? What if it’s controlling me?”