Chapter 4: The Citadel Of Bones
855 Words
The Black Ridge Citadel didn’t look like a castle; it looked like a mountain that had been carved by a god with a grudge. Grey stone spires pierced the mist, and the only way in was a bridge suspended over a five-hundred-foot drop into a churning river.
As the SUV crossed the threshold, the massive iron gates groaned open. Hundreds of people stood in the courtyard. They weren’t just “people”—Clara could see the way they stood, too still, too predatory. Their eyes tracked the car with terrifying synchronization.
Kaelen stepped out first, his presence hitting the crowd like a shockwave. He opened the door for Clara, offering a hand that she pointedly ignored.
“Welcome to my home,” Kaelen said, his voice carrying over the silent crowd.
“It looks like a prison,” Clara retorted, stepping onto the cold stone. She was still in her coffee-stained jeans and a hoodie, looking painfully small among the towering warriors.
A woman stepped forward from the crowd. She was beautiful in a way that felt like a blade—sharp features, platinum hair pulled into a tight braid, and eyes the color of ice. This was Selene, the Pack’s Lead Enforcer and the woman everyone assumed would one day be Kaelen’s Queen.
“Sire,” Selene said, her voice a silk-wrapped purr. She didn’t look at Kaelen; she stared at Clara with a look of pure, unadulterated disgust. “The scouts reported a skirmish. But they didn’t mention you were bringing… livestock back to the mountain.”
The crowd chuckled—a low, guttural sound that raised the hair on Clara’s neck.
Kaelen’s aura shifted instantly. The air grew heavy, the pressure making several lower-ranking wolves drop to their knees. He stepped toward Selene, his eyes bleeding into a lethal, glowing amber.
“She is my Luna,” Kaelen growled. The word echoed off the stone walls, silencing the courtyard. “If you refer to her as anything else again, I will tear the tongue from your head and feed it to the crows. Do I make myself clear?”
Selene paled, her throat bobbing as she bowed her head. “Yes, Alpha King.”
Clara looked between them, her heart hammering. “Luna? What does that mean?”
Kaelen turned to her, his expression softening only slightly. “It means you are the Queen of the Black Ridge. It means my life belongs to you. And yours, by law of the Moon, belongs to me.”
“I don’t belong to anyone,” Clara snapped, backing away. “I’m a scientist. I have a life. You can’t just… ‘Luna’ me into a cage!”
“You’ll find,” a new voice joined in, “that the King doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Especially when he’s been lonely for three centuries.”
A man stepped out from the shadows of the Great Hall. He was leaner than Kaelen, dressed in expensive silk robes, with eyes that held a mischievous, purple glint. Malachi, the Pack’s resident “Tame Warlock.”
Kaelen sighed. “Not now, Malachi.”
“Oh, but the timing is perfect, Sire,” Malachi said, circling Clara like she was a fascinating specimen. “The Vampires are mobilizing, the Witches are whispering, and you’ve brought home a girl who smells like… tea and defiance. This is going to be a very long winter.”
As Kaelen led Clara toward the royal wing, he stopped at a heavy oak door. “This is your room. It is guarded. Do not leave it without me or Silas.
“And if I do?” Clara challenged.
Kaelen leaned in, his hand resting on the doorframe just above her head. He was so close she could smell the cedar and mountain rain on his skin. “There are things in this forest that make those vampires in the diner look like kittens, Clara. Stay inside. For once in your life, be the ‘fragile human’ I need you to be so I can keep you alive.”
“I’d rather be dead than a pet,” she whispered.
Kaelen’s jaw tightened. “Keep testing me, Clara. You’ll find I have very little patience for martyrdom.”
He turned and strode away, leaving her in the lavish, stone-walled room. Clara didn’t go to the bed. She went to the window. It was barred.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small glass vial she’d swiped from the diner’s floor—a sample of the black ichor from the vampire Kaelen killed.
“You want a Queen?” she whispered to the empty room. “I’ll give you a scientist.”
While Clara examines the blood, Selene meets Silas in the armory.
“He’s blinded by the bond,” Selene hissed. “A human Queen will lead us to extinction. The Vampires will smell her weakness from miles away.”
Silas looked at his sword, his expression unreadable. “The King’s word is law, Selene.”
“Laws can be changed,” she whispered. “And Kings can be replaced.”
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