You Shouldn't Come Near Me

I came to in the silence.

No wind. No footsteps. Just the faint buzz of my own pulse pressing against my eardrums like the ticking of a distant time bomb.

I couldn't move.

Panic rose like a scream in my chest, but my lips wouldn't part. My body, paralyzed. My limbs heavy, weighed down by something unseen. My breath caught, ragged and uneven, like I'd just clawed my way out of drowning.

The scent of herbs and smoke curled around me. Earthy. Metallic. Familiar.

Magic.

I tried to blink. The light above me was dim, an amber glow flickering against a dark ceiling carved with moving shadows. A fire. Somewhere nearby.

"She's awake," came a voice.

Female. Calm. Ancient.

Then another. Male. Rough. Shaken. "Are you sure? She's not blinking."

I knew that voice.

Aiden.

The fear inside me uncurled slightly, replaced by something worse, hope.

"Let her come to slowly. The spell was meant to show her the truth, not to destroy her," said the woman again.

Spell.

The witch.

My memories slammed back into place like ice water down my spine.

The red eyes. The whisper of fate. Rowan stepping between me and the vision just before the world went black.

Rowan.

My heart jackhammered, and I forced my lips to part. "R-Rowan...?"

My voice sounded broken. Like it didn't belong to me.

"Rae!" That was Killian. His hand found mine instantly, warm, anchoring me. "You're okay. You're safe. We've got you."

"Where...?" I rasped.

"You were under a blood-binding trance," Aiden said, kneeling beside me. His jaw was tight, the muscles in his neck twitching. "The witch tried to show you something. Rowan jumped in... and it backfired."

I shot upright.

The fire flared behind them.

"Where is he?" My voice cracked. "Where is Rowan?"

Silence.

No one moved.

"No," I whispered. "Don't you dare...don't you dare look at me like that—"

"He's alive," the witch interrupted, finally stepping into view.

She was tall, cloaked in layers of moss-colored fabric that moved like mist around her. Her eyes were strange black, but not empty. Depthless. Like staring into an endless night.

"But not... unchanged," she added quietly.

"What does that mean?" I demanded.

She lifted a hand and gestured toward the far corner of the room.

My gaze followed, and then I saw him.

Rowan.

Or... what used to be Rowan.

He stood in the shadows, half-cloaked by them, but I could still make out the damage. A long, jagged scar now ran from his jaw down to his collarbone. His shirt was torn, stained with something dark and thick. And his eyes...

They weren't the eyes of my brother anymore.

They were glowing.

Pale gold, like twin suns caught in dusk.

Mate eyes.

I staggered to my feet, ignoring the dizziness as I crossed to him. "Rowan—"

"Don't." His voice was raw, deep. He stepped back, shaking. "You shouldn't come near me."

"Why?" I reached for him, but he recoiled again, his chest heaving. "You said it. The Moon Goddess chose us—"

"I shouldn't exist!" he growled. "Not like this. Not as your mate."

The room went still.

Even the fire seemed to stop flickering.

"I died, Rae," he whispered, looking right into me. "I died that night. The curse kept me in the Between. Not living. Not dead. The Moon Goddess pulled me back. But she didn't fix me. She remade me."

"You're still you," I choked.

"No," he rasped. "I'm not."

His hands trembled. The glow in his eyes flared brighter.

"Whatever bond she created between us... it's wrong. You know it. You feel it."

I shook my head violently. "No, I don't. I feel you. You're real. You're mine."

Aiden and Killian stayed quiet, but their presence was thunderous behind me. Waiting. Watching.

"You don't know what she showed me," I whispered, tears stinging. "In that trance... it wasn't just your death. It was mine. I saw fire. Chains. I saw myself being torn apart from the inside out."

The witch stepped forward again, her gaze heavy. "You saw what will happen if the bond remains incomplete."

"What does that mean?" Killian asked, his voice like gravel.

"It means," she said slowly, "that the triad must be whole. Or the girl will shatter."

I turned back to her. "The triad?"

"You, Rae," she said, nodding toward me. "And the two who broke you."

Her eyes flicked toward Aiden and Killian.

"But if Rowan's truly your third... then the Moon Goddess has rewritten fate. And that means the war has already begun."

The room went cold.

"What war?" Aiden demanded.

She didn't blink.

"The one for her soul."

I backed away, heart hammering. "What does that mean, 44what the hell does that mean?"

The witch's face didn't change. "Three mates. One heart. And a darkness that wants to claim it."

A scream split the night.

We all froze.

Outside. The sound came from the woods. High-pitched. Terrified.

Another followed, then another.

Dozens.

The witch's face darkened.

"She's here," she whispered.

"Who?" I asked, already stepping toward the door.

But Killian grabbed me. "No. You're not going out there."

Another scream, closer this time.

The witch's voice dropped to a hush. "The She-Wolf Queen. The one who walks with death at her heels."

The fire flickered out completely.

Darkness swallowed the room.

And outside... something howled.

Not wolf.

Not human.

Sometehing ancient.

And it was calling my name.