Moonbound: Twin Flames

Aria's POV

I didn’t tell anyone about the dream I didn’t tell Selene,didn’t even tell Mom.

Sure as hell didn’t tell Kai.

Because if I admitted what I felt,that strange, soul-deep recognition then I’d have to admit something else:

I was changing,I was no longer the same person although it was out of my control.

Not in the way I was supposed to not in the cracked-bone, fur-skin, howl-at-the-moon way.

No, this was quieter, more deeper.

Like something inside me had finally awakened… and it had his voice.

By the end of the week, the bond started to grow stronger.

I didn’t see Kai often. But when I did, I felt his presence before I saw him. It can be in the form of a low thrum under my ribs or like a string being plucked in the dark.

I started hearing echoes,it was not voices exactly, just abstract emotions.

When he was anxious, I tasted iron.

When he was angry, the air around me felt too tight.

Once, during History of Pack Law, I caught a fleeting image of his memory, not mine. He was standing in a hallway I didn’t recognize, staring at a door with a silver cross burned into the wood.

My breath got caught in my throat.

What was this?

One night, I decided to test it.

I sat in my room, lit a candle, and closed my eyes.

I focused on the space where I felt him, focused on the tether…I held my focus.

And then suddenly he saw me.

Only it wasn’t like before.

This time, I was in his memory.

No, someone else’s.

A room I’d never seen.

A voice I didn’t know not recognize and a name I hadn’t heard in years

“Aradia.” he called out

The name slammed into me like a thunderclap.

My real name,my complete name.

A name I’d buried the day I was told it was too “old-world,” too “cursed.”

No one used it.

No one even knew about it.

Except the voice that whispered it just now, a voice I hadn’t heard in this lifetime.

I jolted awake, gasping.

And that’s when I realized… I wasn’t alone.

There was something in my room.

At first I thought it was Kai.

But it wasn’t.

It wasn’t him.

The figure stood in the corner, cloaked in shadow. Too tall. Too still. And completely silent.

I tried to move, but my body wouldn’t respond.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

The figure didn’t answer.

Didn’t step forward.

But I felt it.

It was inside the bond.

It was not Kai,neither was it me.

But something ancient.

Something…that has been watching and observing us.

Its presence pressed against my thoughts like cold water through a crack in the wall.

Then it spoke.

Not aloud.

Inside me.

“The bond is awakening too soon.”

“The curse is waking with it.”

“You are not the first, Aradia….and you will not be the last.”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t scream, I just stood there static

And then,it vanished.

The room was empty while my heart was beating like a war drum.

My wolf was clawing at the inside of my chest.

I could barely sleep.

The next morning, I woke up to find Selene sitting at the edge of my bed, arms crossed.

“You’re dreaming loud,” she said.

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I could feel it halfway across the den. Whatever it is that you’re doing, you need to stop it.”

I sat up slowly while I called her name calmly “Selene”

“Don’t ‘Selene’ me. Something’s happening to you, and it’s not just about shifting anymore.”

I opened my mouth to lie but she cut me off.

“You’re bonded to him, aren’t you?”

I froze,how did she know I wondered to myself

“How?”

She shook her head. “You think I don’t know what a psychic imprint feels like? It’s like you’ve both got flashing neon signs over your heads. And you know what's worse? Something else is riding the bond.”

She looked pale. Genuinely shaken.

“What do you mean?” I whispered.

She stood, pacing. “I don’t know what it is but it is old and pissed. And it’s not Kai just so you know”

I swallowed hard.

Then Selene turned to me, her voice cold as winter steel.

“You need to break the bond, Aria. Before it breaks you.”

I didn’t respond. I just couldn’t bring myself to.Her words echoed in my head as she stormed out of my room, leaving the air heavy and charged.

The idea of breaking the bond…..It felt like trying to carve out a part of my soul which was impossible.

Later that evening, I stood at the edge of the woods, the moon rising like a silent witness above me. I wanted answers,no.more like I needed them.

I reached for the tether again.

But this time, I didn't find Kai.

I found a door.

It was not physical, didn't seem real either

It was just a massive obsidian door carved with sigils I didn’t understand, floating in the void behind my closed eyes.

And behind it I could sense them. The others' past lives? Memories? Spirits?

I didn’t know.

But I knew this: whoever had spoken my name in that dream…

They were waiting on the other side.

And they weren't done with me yet.