After the pain had subsided, Kayden felt different. He wasn't sure if this was how he was supposed to feel after the ritual, but it felt… wrong. He no longer felt like himself; it was as though he'd glimpsed the world for what it truly was, and he hated every bit of it. This wasn't a fleeting irritation. A fierce, unrelenting rage burned in his chest, a simmering fury that felt entirely foreign yet disturbingly familiar. Something had changed within him, something deep and irreparable.
As he made his way back home, Kayden wrestled with a dilemma. Should he tell his father about the bonding? Spirit wolves were unheard of—his father hadn't even dreamed of him taming one. He'd only ever focused on the phoenix, a creature rare enough to be legendary, yet still within the realm of possibility. But the wolf… Kayden couldn't shake the feeling that this was something different, something that shouldn't have happened. He felt a powerful surge of instincts and emotions he couldn't fully understand, a complexity that both intrigued and terrified him. Before revealing anything, he needed to research—he had to know what the bonding should entail, what sensations were normal, and what abilities he should possess. Only then could he even consider speaking to anyone.
When he stepped through the door, a thick tension settled over the house. Heat seared through him like a volcanic eruption, so intense it nearly drove him back. It was then that he saw his grandfather, emerging from the shadows with a fierce, guarded look in his eyes, his body tense and ready. His father, Lucien, followed, his stance just as defensive. Both men were poised as though bracing for battle, yet their gazes were locked onto him, eyes narrowed and scrutinizing.
Lucien's brow furrowed, his gaze intense as he studied Kayden from head to toe, searching for something unseen. "What happened to you?" His voice was low, tinged with concern and disbelief.
Kayden frowned, glancing down at himself. As far as he could see, he had no visible wounds. "I'm fine," he said, puzzled.
His grandfather let out a bitter, resigned sigh. "It's happened," he muttered, his tone dark and laced with an uncharacteristic edge. "I had thought it would be another family, but perhaps… perhaps it was inevitable."
"Not this early," Lucien snarled, his jaw clenched in fury. "And not to my son."
"What are you talking about?" Kayden demanded, his confusion morphing into frustration. It was clear his father and grandfather knew something—something that affected him deeply. But instead of answering, Lucien's eyes darkened.
"Nothing," Lucien snapped, his voice colder than Kayden had ever heard. "We'll talk another time." His words were dismissive, a clear wall between them.
As they turned to leave, Kayden caught his grandfather casting one last cautious, almost fearful look in his direction. Kayden had never seen his grandfather so visibly shaken, the guarded anger masking a hint of genuine fear. Whatever they suspected about him, it was nothing good.
The next morning, Kayden woke with a single, burning purpose: he needed answers. The memory of his father and grandfather's words and the way they'd looked at him lingered, gnawing at his mind. He was up before dawn, earlier than he ever had been before, and his feet carried him directly to the school library. He didn't care that he was there before most of the students. There was only one thing on his mind.
He found the section on beast taming and pulled out a thick, dusty volume titled The Nature of Beasts. Eagerly, he opened it to the pages on bonding and began to read.
"When tamed, beasts lose their physical bodies and become spiritual entities," the passage stated, "visible only to their tamer." Kayden's mind raced—he hadn't seen or heard from the spirit wolf since last night. The words on the page were giving him nothing, so he shut the book and pulled another from the shelf, this one with an embossed cover labeled Spirit Beasts.
His heart quickened as he read. "None in history have ever tamed a spirit beast. Highly intelligent and already existing as spiritual beings, it is unknown what changes occur when they are bound. It is widely believed that they are connected to the…" Kayden's breath caught as he saw that the rest of the line had been blacked out. The words were thickly marked over with black ink, the letters indecipherable.
He closed the book with a snap, frustration simmering beneath his skin.
After a few frustrating hours, Kayden finally found a worn leather-bound book titled Rare Bonds and Forbidden Taming. The title intrigued him, and he quickly skimmed through until he found a short section on beasts that refused to fully bond, known in legend as "spirit guardians."
"Unlike other beasts, spirit guardians share a bond that doesn't conform to typical taming. They are believed to choose their tamers and alter them in ways that remain unknown until it is too late."
The words felt ominous, but they struck a chord. His spirit wolf hadn't felt like a regular bond; it was something deeper, more intense, as if it had imprinted itself on his very being.
Continuing his search, Kayden came across another brief mention in a faded old book, which hinted at a "Spirit Realm" from which such beasts supposedly came. It suggested that those who bonded with spirit guardians often experienced unsettling changes, both mentally and emotionally, but left the details unclear.
One line, however, stood out to him: "Beware those marked by spirits, for they walk a path of power and peril."
It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Kayden uneasy. There was a strange sense of fate in those words, and though he still didn't have answers, he felt sure of one thing—this bond had set him on a path he was barely beginning to understand.
There were no clear answers here, just more mysteries. The only option left was his father—he clearly knew something. But prying the truth from Lucien would be another challenge entirely.