Updated Sep 16, 2025 • ~2 min read
The village had gone quiet by the time Mira reached him. Wolves gave her wary glances, but none dared step between them. She felt every eye watching as she stopped a breath away from Darius, the bond humming like a storm about to break.
“You came back,” he said, voice low, unreadable.
She lifted her chin, forcing her voice steady. “I didn’t come back for you. I came back for me.”
A flicker passed through his gaze—something fierce, something hopeful. But she pressed on, her words sharp as blades.
“If I stay, it won’t be as your captive. It won’t be because of a bond or a curse. If I stay, it’s because I choose to. And that means rules.”
The crowd stirred at her boldness, but Darius didn’t flinch. He stepped closer, the heat of him wrapping around her like fire. “Rules?”
Her heart hammered, but she held his gaze. “No orders barked like I’m a soldier. No decisions made without me. And no more hiding behind that curse like it excuses everything you do. If you want me here, you face me as a man. Not as a monster.”
For a long, suffocating moment, he said nothing. Then his lips curved, not into a smile, but into something darker. A vow.
“Done.”
The word shook through her, sinking into the marrow of her bones.
Gasps rippled through the wolves around them. They had never seen anyone bargain with their alpha. Never seen him yield.
Mira swallowed hard, her body trembling, but she didn’t step back. “Then we start on my terms.”
Darius’s eyes burned gold, his voice low and certain. “On your terms, or none at all.”
The bond pulsed hot between them, but for the first time, Mira didn’t feel chained. She felt powerful.
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