Our Fate

Lena

The silence stretched between us, thick with unspoken words. It wasn't the comfortable kind of silence, the kind that settled between familiar souls. No, this silence was heavy, taut with tension, a thousand questions pressing against the air like an impending storm.

I had followed him into the forest without hesitation, drawn by an inexplicable pull, a force that seemed to recognize him before my mind could fully comprehend why. But now, standing in the clearing beneath the pale glow of the moon, reality settled over me like a weight.

I knew what he was.

But not who.

His silver eyes held me in place, unreadable and unyielding, glinting like shards of ice under the night sky. His presence was suffocating in its intensity, a force that pressed against my skin, urging me to acknowledge something I wasn't yet ready to face.

Still, I refused to shrink beneath it.

"If you want me to trust you," I said, my voice steady despite the pounding of my heart, "I need to know who you are."

A muscle ticked in his jaw, his expression unreadable. I thought, for a moment, that he might refuse—that he might let the silence stretch between us until my question faded into nothing.

But then, after a long pause, he inclined his head slightly.

"Kael Varen," he said, his voice low, measured, every syllable carrying an authority that sent a shiver down my spine. "King of the Lythari."

The name hit me like a strike of lightning—cold, sharp, electric.

I had never heard it before. Not in stories, not in whispers among the villagers. And yet, something about it felt… familiar. Like an echo of something I had once known, something buried so deep within me that I couldn't quite reach it.

Kael Varen.

King of the Lythari.

A werewolf king.

I swallowed hard, my fingers curling into fists to keep them from trembling. The weight of his title pressed against me, unseen but suffocating all the same. I had been raised on stories of beasts that lurked beyond the trees, of creatures that prowled the night in search of blood.

But this was no mindless beast.

This was a man.

A king.

I forced my voice not to waver. "Lythari," I repeated, tasting the foreign word on my tongue, letting it settle there. "Is that what you call yourselves?"

His gaze didn't waver. "We are not the creatures your people fear in their stories."

The words were firm, absolute. And yet, there was something else beneath them. A warning. A challenge.

I hesitated, choosing my next words carefully. "Then what are you?"

Something flickered in his eyes. Not quite amusement, not quite mirth—something darker, something that sent another shiver racing through me.

Then, for the first time, the corner of his lips curved into something that might have been a smile. It was fleeting, sharp as a blade, gone before I could even process what it meant.

"More than just wolves," he said simply.

His voice carried something unspoken, something layered beneath those few words. He wasn't just telling me they were different—he was telling me I couldn't possibly understand.

Not yet.

The night air was cold against my skin, the wind whispering through the trees, rustling the leaves with secrets I wasn't meant to hear. I inhaled slowly, grounding myself, clinging to what little certainty I had left.

I had spent my whole life searching for where I belonged. Searching for answers to questions I hadn't even known how to ask.

And somehow, standing here in the presence of this man, I felt closer to them than I ever had before.

I took a slow, deliberate breath.

"Lena Voss," I said at last, letting the name settle in the space between us. It felt strange on my tongue, heavier than before. It wasn't just a name—it was a truth I had barely begun to understand.

I lifted my chin, holding his gaze. "I was raised in Blackthorn, but I don't belong there."

Kael studied me for a long moment, his expression unreadable, his silver eyes catching the moonlight like liquid mercury.

Then, softly—so softly I almost didn't hear it—he said, "No. You don't."

A chill ran through me.

Not at his words, but at the certainty in them.

He hadn't said it like a question. He hadn't said it like a guess.

He had said it like a fact.

Like something he knew beyond any doubt.

I met his gaze, something in my chest tightening, something clawing at the edges of my mind, trying to break free. "How do you know me?"

The silence that followed was different from the ones before it. It wasn't hesitant. It wasn't uncertain.

It was careful.

Measured.

Kael held my gaze, his expression unreadable. Then, finally, he spoke.

"Because, Lena," he said, his voice quiet but firm, "our fates were entwined long before we ever met."

My breath caught in my throat.

The wind stirred around us, carrying the scent of the forest, of the earth, of something ancient and restless.

I didn't know what he meant.

I wasn't sure I wanted to.

But deep in my bones, in the part of me I had spent my entire life ignoring, I felt it.

A truth I wasn't ready to understand.

And a bond I couldn't escape.