CHAPTER13
883 Words
Chapter Thirteen: The Blood That Binds
Aria’s POV
I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, not because of fear, but because something had broken.
No, not broken. Unlocked rather.
The golden eyes rose higher from the fissure, attached to a body wreathed in shadow and smoke. Its form wasn’t fully fleshed; it shifted between a massive wolf and something humanoid, cloaked in tendrils of power that burned to look at.
The Hunt had awakened.
And it was looking right at me.
“Aria!” Kael’s voice tore through the panic, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
Because the Hunt didn’t lunge.
It didn’t roar.
It bowed.
The monstrous head dipped low, and every single Council member looked confused.
And in my mind, clearer than any thought—I heard its voice.
“Finally. Bond is complete.”
Kael’s POV
My instincts screamed to protect her.
But I was rooted in place. Because I saw it before anyone else did the truth in her eyes.
The recognition.
The Hunt wasn’t here to destroy her.
It was here to serve her.
“Get the girl away from it!” Councillor Renn shouted.
But the others didn’t move. Couldn’t. The truth was impossible to deny now.
The Vale bloodline wasn’t just bait.
It was the anchor.
And Aria had called it home.
Darius’s POV
I dragged Aria back as the edges of the rift cracked wider, the stone buckling beneath our feet. But she wasn’t resisting. She was listening.
I could feel it—something was being transferred between her and the Hunt.
A current of recognition of the claim.
And then her knees buckled.
I caught her just before she collapsed. Her skin burned to the touch, and her eyes had turned a burning silver-gold.
She whispered,
“It’s not just waking… It’s binding. To me.”
My gut twisted.
“Aria… what did you open?”
Her next words chilled me to the core.
“I think I am the Hunt. Or part of it.”
Keira’s POV
The moment the ground split, I smiled.
Idiots. All of them.
They thought they’d stopped me by locking me away. But it was never about me.
It was her.
Aria’s birth was the activation switch.
I just had to delay it.
Twist her.
Break her.
But they pushed her too far. Now she’s fused with it.
And now none of them can control her.
Hahaha
No one can try me.
I leaned back against the wall as the prison trembled, grinning into the dark.
“I warned them. Now she’ll devour everything.”
Elder Omega’s POV
“She’s linked to it,” I whispered, stunned.
The others in the chamber shouted, some demanding her exile, others calling for her execution.
But I knew better.
If we killed Aria now, we wouldn’t sever the Hunt.
We’d unleash it.
“She is not the danger,” I said.
“She is the cage.”
And that’s when the twist arrived.
The ancient scrolls we thought destroyed lit up behind us one of the binding seals reactivating and in their glow, a prophecy we had long hidden returned in full:
“The final Vale shall awaken not to chain the beast, but to choose its prey.”
Everyone went silent.
Because that meant one thing:
Aria would decide who the Hunt devours.
Aria’s POV
I came to the infirmary with Kael beside me and Darius pacing nearby.
“What happened?” I asked, voice raw.
“You collapsed,” Kael said. “The Hunt didn’t attack. It vanished into the earth but it left a mark on your skin.”
I looked down.
A golden spiral now glowed over my heart. The same spiral from the floor of the sealed archives.
“I didn’t summon it,” I whispered. “It came on its own.”
Darius stepped forward. “Because you’re the vessel now. It’s using your bloodline as a first child.”
I touched the mark, heart pounding. “I don’t want this.”
“It’s not about what you want anymore,” Kael said harshly.
“It’s about inheritance.”
And suddenly the door burst open.
Councillor Renn stormed in with two enforcers.
“You are hereby summoned for judgment.”
Kael stepped between us, but Renn didn’t stop.
“Step aside, Alpha. She’ll doom us all if we don’t act now.”
“She’s not a threat!” Kael snarled.
Renn’s eyes flashed. “She’s a weapon that hasn’t chosen a side yet. We’ll make that choice for her.”
And then something deep inside me changed.
The mark on my chest pulsed once.
Every candle in the room extinguished at once.
I was getting angry.
And from the stone beneath our feet came a deep, vibrating growl.
Elder Renn’s voice died in his throat.
And I caused it.
Because the Hunt was listening.
And it was close.
As the guards backed away, Kael looked at me like he didn’t know who I was anymore.
Even Darius faltered.
I stood slowly, barefoot on cold stone, the mark on my skin glowing with rising heat.
“I won’t run,” I said, my voice layered with something no longer entirely my own.
“But if you try to chain me again…”
I will fight the Council.
- Writer
