Chereads / Moonlit Bond / Chapter 13 - Chapter 13: The Bonds We Keep

Chapter 13 - Chapter 13: The Bonds We Keep

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Elena's POV

The warmth of the cabin and the crackling fire did little to settle Elena's nerves. Mason lounged lazily on the worn couch while Lila busied herself with an old kettle, steam hissing softly. Caleb stood by the door, his broad frame casting a long shadow across the wooden floor. He hadn't said much since they arrived, but his silence didn't comfort her.

This was Caleb's pack. His family. Wolves in human skin, creatures she still couldn't wrap her mind around.

"You're staring." Mason's voice broke through her thoughts, his grin sharp with amusement.

Elena blinked and quickly looked away. "I wasn't—"

"Sure you were," Mason teased. "Not used to being around people like us, huh?"

"Mason," Caleb said in a warning tone, his gaze sharp.

"What?" Mason shrugged, propping his feet up on the low table. "She might as well get used to us. If she's gonna be sticking around, she'll need to know how things work."

"Enough," Caleb growled, his voice like a low rumble of thunder.

Mason didn't argue, though his grin didn't falter. Elena couldn't tell if he was genuinely carefree or if he enjoyed poking at the obvious tension in the room. Lila, on the other hand, offered a small, reassuring smile as she handed Elena a steaming cup of tea.

"Don't mind him," Lila said, her tone much kinder. "Mason's a pup compared to the rest of us. He doesn't know when to shut up."

"I heard that," Mason muttered.

Elena accepted the tea gratefully, her fingers curling around the warm ceramic. "Thank you."

Lila settled into a chair across from her. "You must have a lot of questions."

That was the understatement of the century. Elena had too many questions—ones she wasn't sure she wanted answers to. She glanced toward Caleb, who was still standing near the door, his arms crossed over his chest like he was guarding the entire cabin from unseen dangers.

"Why does Victor think I'm… marked?" Elena finally asked, her voice hesitant.

Lila and Mason exchanged a glance, though it was Lila who spoke. "The marked are special. Rare. Most of us thought it was just an old myth—humans chosen by ancient forces. But if Victor believes you're one of them, then there's no reasoning with him. He'll hunt you until he gets what he wants."

Elena's chest tightened. "But I don't feel special. I'm not."

"Maybe you are, and you just don't know it yet," Mason said, his tone less teasing now. "The magic doesn't always show itself right away. It's like… being a seed buried under the earth. You won't see anything until it starts to grow."

Elena stared into her tea, her stomach twisting. She didn't want to grow. She didn't want to be anything other than a normal person.

"Victor's interest in you is dangerous," Caleb said suddenly, his voice cutting through the quiet.

Elena looked up to find him staring at her, his dark eyes intense. "That's why you're here. Until we figure out what makes you important to him, you can't go back to your old life."

Her throat went dry. "So I'm… trapped here?"

"Safe here," Caleb corrected.

Safe. The word echoed hollowly in her mind. She should have felt relieved—she wanted to feel relieved—but all she could think about was her tiny apartment back home, her familiar routines, and the life that felt like it had been ripped out from under her.

She set her tea down, her hands trembling. "I need air."

Before anyone could stop her, Elena stood and hurried toward the door. She didn't look back as she stepped outside into the biting cold of the night.

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Elena's POV

The forest was quieter here, but it was still unnerving. The moon hung low in the sky, casting silver light across the clearing. Elena wrapped Caleb's jacket tighter around herself and let the silence settle over her.

Everything was too much—too strange, too fast. Victor's threats, Caleb's protectiveness, this pack… it felt like she had been dropped into the middle of a story that didn't belong to her.

"Running off alone isn't smart," Caleb's voice said behind her.

She turned sharply to see him stepping out of the shadows, his dark hair tousled, his hands shoved into his pockets. He moved so quietly that it was unnerving, a silent predator who seemed perfectly at ease in the night.

"I'm not running," Elena muttered. "Just… thinking."

Caleb tilted his head, studying her. "About what?"

"About everything." She exhaled, her breath visible in the cold air. "About how none of this makes any sense. About why me?"

Caleb took a step closer, his expression unreadable. "Sometimes the world doesn't make sense. Sometimes we don't get answers right away."

"That's not very comforting," she replied, her voice bitter.

Caleb's gaze softened slightly. "It's not meant to be. It's just the truth."

Elena turned her face away, her eyes stinging. She hated how helpless she felt, how small she seemed in the face of everything that was happening. "I didn't ask for this, Caleb. I didn't ask to be hunted or… or protected."

"I know," Caleb said quietly. "And I didn't ask to be the one protecting you. But here we are."

She looked back at him sharply. "If you don't want to help me, then don't."

His jaw tightened, and for a long moment, he didn't say anything. Then he stepped closer, his dark eyes locking onto hers with such intensity that she forgot to breathe.

"I do want to help you," Caleb said, his voice low. "You don't understand what Victor's capable of. I've seen the things he's done—the lives he's destroyed. If he thinks you're important, then you're in more danger than you realize. I can't let that happen."

Elena swallowed hard. "Why? Why do you care so much?"

Caleb hesitated, his expression conflicted. For a moment, she thought he might not answer. Then, finally, he said, "Because I've lost people before. I'm not losing anyone else."

His words hung heavily in the air between them. Elena's heart ached, though she wasn't sure why. She wanted to say something, but the look in Caleb's eyes stopped her. It was raw and haunted, like a wound that had never quite healed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Caleb shook his head. "Don't be. Just promise me you'll stop running off alone."

Elena managed a small, shaky nod. "Okay."

Caleb looked at her for another long moment before turning back toward the cabin. "Come on. You need rest."

Elena followed him silently, her thoughts racing. Caleb's words echoed in her mind: I've lost people before.

What had he meant? And why did it feel like Caleb's secrets were as deep and tangled as the forest around them?

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