MARKED FOR PRETEND - Chapter 46: Chapter 46

Kaden’s POV)
The air near the ridge had gone thin.
Even the wind refused to howl here.
Kaden stood at the edge of the world or so it felt watching the jagged stretch of mountains that marked the northern edge of his territory. Beyond them: dead land. Cursed soil. And buried deep beneath it all… the crossing.
Kaelvarin.
“You shouldn’t do this,” said Aelar, the last surviving Keeper loyal to Duskveil. “Even your wolf will suffer there. That gate was sealed for a reason.”
Kaden didn’t answer. His eyes were fixed on the black stones ahead — stones that pulsed with old magic, cracks running through them like veins filled with starlight.
“She’s there,” Kaden said quietly. “And she’s in danger.”
“You’ll lose yourself.”
“Then I’ll lose myself finding her.”
Kael stirred beneath his skin — more awake than ever. His growls came often now, more words than sound.
She called. I heard her. We go.
⸻
Kaden approached the circle of runes. They pulsed as he neared — gold light stretching upward like flame caught in slow motion. Magic scraped the edges of his bones, testing him.
He didn’t flinch.
“By blood and bond,” he whispered. “By fang and flame. Open.”
A shockwave hit him — cold, ancient, searing. But the gate trembled.
Cracked.
Opened.
⸻
The world twisted.
Light bled into shadow. The ground vanished.
And then—he was falling.
Through mist. Through memory. Through something deeper than air.
He heard voices.
“He comes…”
“She’ll tear him apart.”
“Unless she loves him more than fate itself.”
Then silence.
⸻
When Kaden opened his eyes, the sky above him wasn’t sky at all. It shimmered like liquid silver, and the trees grew upside down, their roots tangled in the stars.
The realm had accepted him.
Barely.
Kael rose in a slow ripple beneath his skin.
We’re close.
Kaden stood, shaking off the magic still clinging to his shoulders.
“Hold on, Chelsea,” he muttered. “I’m here.”
And somewhere in the distance, something answered.
Not a voice. Not a howl.
A heartbeat.