Chapter 30 · The Moon Door

I'm running toward the one person who told me to run away.

The bond pulls like a fishhook in my chest. Every step closer to the old temple ruins makes it worse. My ribs feel like they're cracking inward. Kade's heartbeat hammers through the connection, fast and wrong, like something's chasing him from the inside.

Or controlling him.

"Lena, this is insane." Ryan's right behind me, breathing hard. He's been trying to talk me out of this for the last ten minutes. "You saw his eyes. That wasn't Kade."

"I know."

"Then why are we walking into—"

"Because if I don't, Theron kills him." I don't slow down. The moon's almost full overhead, bright enough to cast shadows through the trees. The temple's just ahead, half-collapsed stone walls covered in vines. I can feel Kade inside. The bond's screaming at me to get closer.

Ryan grabs my wrist. "And if Theron kills you?"

I yank free. "Then I'm dead. But I'm not leaving him."

He stares at me like I just said something in another language. Maybe I did. A month ago I didn't believe in blood bonds or wolf clans or any of this.