Untamed.

The elders move forward, their long cloaks brushing against the sacred stones beneath them.

They stop at the center of the courtyard, where the light pools like liquid silver, and lift their ritual wands high.

Their voices, low and solemn, echo through the tense air.

"Alpha Lucan and Luna," the eldest elder calls out, her voice steady but carrying the weight of ancient authority. "Step forward."

Lucan's grip on Kyle's hand tightens instinctively.

Without hesitation, he leads Kyle forward, their joined hands a silent statement before the sea of expectant faces.

The world seems to hush. Even the night wind holds its breath as they come to stand before the council.

The air grows heavier, dense with the power of the sacred moment and the unspoken fears hidden in the hearts of the watching wolves.

The eldest among them, a woman with silver hair cascading down her back like a shimmering river, raises her ritual rods higher, the tip glowing faintly under the sunlight. Her voice rings out, clear and strong.

"Today, under the sacred gaze of the Moon Goddess," she intones, "we bear witness to the binding of two fated souls. Alpha Lucan, and his Luna, you are called to confirm the bond that the Goddess has woven between you."

Lucan's chin lifts proudly. His gaze never strays from Kyle's face, fierce determination blazing in his eyes.

Kyle feels it, the unwavering, unconditional acceptance in that gaze, and it pierces straight through him.

Kyle's heart pounds against his ribs like a war drum. His muscles lock with tension he can barely conceal. A bead of cold sweat slides down his spine.

"You will speak your truths now," the elder continues, solemn.

Her staff taps once against the stone, a deep thud that vibrates through the earth beneath their feet.

"Alpha Lucan," she says, "do you accept the mate the Moon Goddess has chosen for you, without doubt, without question, without hesitation?"

Lucan's hand tightens further around Kyle's.

His voice, when it comes, is low but unshakeable, echoing with raw sincerity.

"I accept her with all that I am."

A murmur passes through the crowd, but Kyle barely hears it.

The elder turns toward him, her sharp eyes piercing through the night straight into Kyle's soul.

"And you, Luna Kyler, do you accept the mate the Moon Goddess has chosen for you, without fear, without doubt, without resistance?"

Kyle's stomach twists violently, a knot of dread that threatens to pull him under.

His mouth is dry as ash.

Every pair of eyes burns into him like branding irons, suffocating him beneath their collective gaze.

He feels like prey caught in the open.

His mind screams warnings.

He knows if he accepts now, if he binds himself before the Goddess and the packs, there will be no turning back.

He will have to shift.

He will have to reveal everything he has fought so desperately to hide.

They would see it.

The crimson glow of his eyes.

The monstrous truth branded across his skin.

They would know he is the hunted boy, the cursed one_ they say_ the abomination they have spent their lives hunting down.

Terror, bitter and sharp, rises in his throat.

If he had known there would be a confirmation ritual...

If he had known he would be asked to stand here and choose...

He never would have stepped foot outside the walls that hid him.

But now, it is too late.

It is far too late.

"Kyler?"

Lucan's voice cuts through the whirlwind in his mind, low and full of concern.

Kyle feels the gentle tug on his hand, grounding him momentarily.

He wants to say yes.

Gods, he wants it more than anything, to belong, to be wanted, to be safe in Lucan's arms.

But he also knows that if he stays, if he lies, the truth will devour them both.

Kyle forces his head down, refusing to meet Lucan's eyes or the elder's gaze.

His voice, when he finds it, is brittle, splintered by guilt and terror.

"I don't accept," he says, barely above a whisper.

The courtyard shatters into chaos.

Gasps rip through the gathering like a wave crashing against rocks.

Murmurs rise, urgent and fearful, filling every inch of the day with confusion and suspicion.

Panic claws at Kyle's chest, savage and blinding.

Everything blurs.

The ground tilts.

Faces warp and stretch around him.

He can't breathe.

His eyes start to irritate and burn,

and he knows what's coming.

He tries, desperately, to hold it back, the crimson light surging within him, the monstrous part clawing up from the depths.

His chest seizes painfully.

The mark on his skin burns from inside.

Kyle stumbles back, needing to run, needing to flee, but Lucan's grip snaps around his wrist like a vice.

"Kyler...!" Lucan's voice is desperate, confused.

Kyle yanks away with a force that's not entirely his own.

Kyle turns sharply, his eyes burning behind closed lids. He lifts a trembling hand to shield them, hiding the crimson glow he can no longer contain.

As he moves, a violent force bursts from his chest, invisible yet suffocating_ a raw, angry energy that rips through the air like a silent scream.

Wolves stagger and fall, chaos erupting around him. Kyle feels the darkness spill out of him, untamed, furious, as he stumbles backward, overwhelmed.

The blast strikes outward.

Wolves are flung back as if thrown by the hands of a furious god.

Chaos erupts.

Screams fill the air as bodies hit the ground hard.

Kyle barely has time to register the devastation before the force drains from him, and he crumples.

The world fades into darkness as he collapses to the earth.

Lucan is immediately at his side, panic-stricken, trying to shake him up, to reach him, to make sense of what just happened.

But then, a bloodcurdling scream slices through the noise.

"The Old Alpha Elias and his Luna! They're gone!"

Lucan's head whips around, dread curdling his insides.

He sees his parents lying still on the ground, unmoving.

A sickening, hollow roar builds inside Lucan's chest.

He is torn, torn between Kyle, fragile and unconscious on the ground, and his parents' lifeless bodies.

"Take her inside!" Lucan roars, telling Harris, voice ragged with fury and fear.

Harris scoops Kyle up and rushes him inside, while Lucan stumbles toward his parents, heart hammering against his ribs like a caged animal.

But it's too late.

They are already gone.

The pain breaks out of Lucan in a feral roar, shaking the very foundations of the courtyard.

The ground itself trembles under the force of his grief.

The running, the screaming, all of it halts, every wolf paralyzed by the sound of a heart being ripped apart.

And then from the crowd a voice shouts, wild with terror.

"It's the cursed energy! The cursed boy! It's him! I can feel it, just like the day he was born! He must be around here!"

Lucan's body trembles with rage.

He takes a step forward, his voice exploding out of him, thunderous and unrelenting.

"Find him!" he bellows.

"And don't you dare return without him! Right now, he's alone! His protectors are gone! He's vulnerable!"

His voice fractures with rage and something darker, something monstrous.

"And if I find him first..."

His voice drops to a deadly snarl.

"...whatever happens to him will be beyond words!"

The courtyard quakes under the force of his command.

The hunt has begun again, not knowing that the person they are looking for is right under their noses.