Falling for my father's killers.

Chapter Five- Aria's gone.

The silence after those words felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

It’s either Aria or the pack.

I looked at Lynn, my heart hammering so loud it drowned out everything else. His eyes were on me, unreadable. For a heartbeat, I thought—hoped—he would step forward, defend me the way Cole had. But then his gaze shifted to his pack, to their expectant faces, their loyalty like a living thing pressing down on him.

“I…” His jaw clenched. “I have to protect my pack.”

The words fell like stones.

I didn’t breathe. I couldn’t. My chest felt like it was caving in.

He chose them.

Cole stepped forward, fury flickering across his face. “Lynn—”

Lynn cut him off, his voice firm but quiet. “This isn’t about what I want. It’s my duty. My obligation. My mother died because she put her heart before her people. I won’t make that mistake.”

My knees almost gave out. He was quoting his mother — the late Luna — like it was some kind of mantra. My stomach turned.

“I’m not a mistake,” I whispered, but it barely left my lips. Tears filled my eyes, pouring down my face like a lake.

Brenda tightened her grip on my hand. Her touch was the only thing keeping me from falling apart right there in front of them all.

As Cole dragged Lynn out of the classroom to the hallway, I turned towards him with my pitiful face, maybe he was going to pity me, or so I thought. But his face stiffened as he walked past me.

My thoughts could barely rest. Is he going to really choose his pack over me? I've lost the two most important people in my life to lose him. If he comes, I'll reason with him. He can't just decide to end this all of a sudden. I thought.

Inside me, Araya purred. “See? He’s just like the rest. They’ll never stand with you. Never.”

“And Aria, you're too damn beautiful to be hoping for a guy to love you the way you ought to be loved.” Araya's voice changed this time, not forceful, not manipulative but caring.

“No,” I murmured, more to myself than her. “He’s… he’s different. He has to be,” I said, knowing fully well Lynn came into my life when I was at my lowest and I may have attached emotional sentiments to our relationship.

“And besides, this is all your fault. Why did you have to choose me? I didn't want all of this, but you forcefully entered my body. I'll never let you win. I'll never allow you to take over,” I blurted, my voice low.

I walked towards the door to explain to Lynn that I could control whatever was happening. But then, through the thin wall of the classroom, voices drifted in from the hallway. Lynn’s and Cole’s. I froze.

“She’s not like the others,” Cole said. “You’re treating her like she’s your enemy. Don’t you see what that’s doing to her?”

“Cole's defending me, again?” I whispered. At that moment, I felt love did not rebound for the first time, but it brushed away in seconds as soon as I heard Lynn.

“She is dangerous, Cole,” Lynn snapped back. “Her uncle came into town to kill werewolves… even innocent ones. As long as he's killing them, and he's not remorseful, then it's war. And besides her father—”

“Don’t you dare bring up her father? That’s not her fault.”

There was a pause. I seemed interested in this conversation. Then Lynn’s voice, low and sharp: “My mother killed her father. You think that doesn’t matter? You think she won’t find out? When she does, she won’t look at me the same way again.”

The world tilted. My breath caught in my throat.

My father. Dead because of Lynn’s mother. The late Luna.

Thinking I've heard it all, Lynn's words choke me further to death.

“But Lynn, remember —” Cole tried to persuade him, but he cut him.

“I’m the alpha of the pack. It is my duty to protect it. Besides, I felt pity for her, that's why I became her comforter. I didn't know we were ever going to be together for this long,” Lynn said, without any hint of remorse in his voice.

The last thread holding me together snapped.

Araya’s voice rose like a tide, cold and victorious. Let me in. Let me do what you can’t. Make them pay.

Brenda’s voice came from far away. “Aria? What’s wrong? You’re shaking—”

I barely heard her. I was already drowning. My vision blurred, edges darkening. My heartbeat was no longer mine but hers — a hunter’s drumbeat, merciless and sure.

“Yes,” Araya hissed. “Let go. Let me hunt.”

And this time, I didn’t fight her.

It was like a door opening inside me. The air shifted, the lights flickered. A pressure built in my chest, spilling out as a sharp gasp. My fingers curled, nails biting my palms until blood welled.

When I lifted my head, the room felt smaller, colder. Brenda stumbled back, eyes wide.

“Aria?” she whispered.

But the voice that answered wasn’t fully mine. “Aria’s not here right now.”

The wolves stirred, sensing the change. Growls rose from their throats. Cole and Lynn walked in. Cole stepped between me and the others, his stance tense.

“What's going on?” Cole asked.

“Remember that voice? I… I think it's growing louder inside her.” Brenda stuttered, taking a step back at a time.

“Aria… Aria, fight her,” Cole persuaded, his voice steady but urgent. “I know you can hear me.”

Inside, I could hear myself screaming — but it was distant, muffled, like I was locked behind glass.

Araya smiled through my lips, gazing at Lynn, she said, “You should have chosen better, Alpha.”

The pack bristled. Lynn’s face went pale, but he didn’t step forward.

Brenda’s voice cracked. “Aria, please—this isn’t you!”

But it was too late. The hunter had taken the reins. And for the first time, I was the threat.

My hands — no, her hands — reached behind me. Metal clinked. A concealed weapon slid free from a hidden sheath sewn into my jacket lining.

A silver-loaded revolver. Sleek. Deadly. Beautiful in a way that terrified me.

My real self froze in horror. How did I even have that? I never owned a g*n.

Araya smirked through my reflection on the cracked windowpane.

“Zach does.”

Lynn’s expression hardened. “Aria—put it down.”

But Araya wasn’t listening. My fingers spun the cylinder with a click, silver bullets gleaming under the dim classroom lights.

“You all reek of guilt and blood,” she said, stepping forward. “Let’s see if loyalty still holds when death comes calling.”

Cole’s eyes widened as realization dawned. “She’s not Aria anymore.”

The first shot cracked through the air.

A silver bullet grazed the shoulder of one wolf — smoke and sparks rising from the burn. Chaos erupted. Desks overturned, claws scraped tile, growls filled the air.

I was half-conscious, trapped inside myself, screaming, Stop! Please stop! But Araya moved like liquid fury — spinning, firing, reloading without even looking.

The wolves lunged, but she was faster. Centuries of battle instinct flowed through her. She ducked under a strike, slammed her elbow into a jaw, and fired point-blank into another’s chest. The silver pierced fur and bone, and a choked howl filled the room.

He collapsed. Still.

Lynn’s roar shook the windows. He knelt by the fallen wolf, pressing his hands over the wound, trying to heal him. “Nick! Stay with me!”

Cole moved to intercept, blocking Araya’s next shot. “Aria, listen to me! You’re stronger than her. Fight it!”

Araya’s grin was cruel. “She doesn’t want to fight anymore.” She raised the revolver again.

Before she could pull the trigger, Brenda burst from behind the overturned table, eyes wide and glassy, her hands trembling as though gripped by an unseen force. Tears streamed down her face, but her pupils burned with a strange silver flicker, a glow too faint to be a firelight.

“Stop!” Her voice cracked but carried the weight of a thousand echoes, overlapping like a chorus. “You’ll kill them all — and yourself!”

For a heartbeat, the g*n felt heavier, like it belonged to someone else. The sound of her voice wasn’t just sound; it threaded into my skull, pulled at something primal.

Brenda’s knees hit the floor as she clutched her head, gasping as if she were choking on visions. “Blood on the leaves… wolves in the fire… it doesn’t end if you pull that trigger…”

The surrounding haze faltered. My hand trembled. I was Aria for a split second. Araya took over. I was fighting her, but she was stronger than me.

Lynn looked up, grief twisting his face as the dying wolf went still beneath his palms. He met my — her — gaze, pain replacing anger. “You’ve killed one of us, Aria. Do you even know what that means?”

Araya tilted her head, almost pitying. “Yes. It means balance.”

She holstered the revolver, the motion clean, practiced as she turned toward the door.

“Warn the others,” she said, her voice low and certain. “The hunters are rising. And this time, we’re not the prey.”

She stepped over Nick’s body and vanished through the shattered doorway, leaving smoke, blood, and the echo of gunfire behind.

Lynn knelt in silence, Cole standing behind him, fists trembling.

Brenda stayed crouched in the corner, her breath ragged, whispering one broken line:

“She’s gone… Aria’s gone.”