Chapter 13: declaration of war
696 Words
Ryker’s POV
Ryker had heard many things in his life threats from rival packs, declarations of war from vampire clans, even prophecies whispered in the dark but nothing had unsettled him the way the Seer’s words had.
Aria was not just his mate.
She was a reckoning.
“She carries the blood of the First White Alpha,” the Seer had said. “If awakened fully, she will have the strength to wipe out both the werewolf packs and the vampire clans. Neither kingdom will survive her rage. Only the leader she chooses as her true mate will be spared.”
Not claimed.
Chosen.
The difference haunted him.
Since that night, the atmosphere inside his pack had changed. The warriors who once followed him without hesitation now watched him carefully. The elders held private meetings. His Beta, Rowan, had stopped arguing openly but the silence was worse.
“She is too dangerous,” one elder finally said during council. “If the prophecy is true, we should end the threat before it grows.”
Ryker didn’t remember standing up. He only remembered the sound of the council table cracking beneath his fists.
“No one touches her,” he said evenly.
The room went quiet.
“She is not a threat to us.”
“She is a threat to everyone,” another elder replied. “Including you.”
That was the moment he understood. They weren’t afraid of Aria.
They were afraid of losing control.
After the meeting, Rowan followed him outside.
“You’re letting emotion cloud your judgment,” Rowan said carefully. “If Kristoff finds her first and mates her, the vampire clan survives and we fall.”
“If Kristoff finds her first,” Ryker replied, his voice turning cold, “there won’t be a clan left for him to rule.”
He had already sent scouts in every direction. They had tracked her scent north, only for it to disappear near the river borders. They found signs of a struggle vampire blood, claw marks in tree bark, torn fabric but no body.
Which meant she was alive.
The problem was that every time he got close, something interfered. A false trail. A sudden vampire ambush. Silver traps laid where no human hunter would ever go. It was too coordinated to be coincidence.
Kristoff was moving ahead of him.
Two nights later, Ryker led a smaller group himself. He trusted fewer wolves now. Loyalty shifted quickly when survival was at stake.
They followed the faint trace of Aria’s scent into the eastern woods. It was weak, mixed with fear and exhaustion. His wolf reacted instantly, pulling him forward with urgency.
Then the attack came.
Silver nets dropped from above, burning into skin. Explosive powder ignited along the tree line. Two of his warriors fell instantly. The rest scattered.
Ryker tore through the net with brute force, skin blistering from contact. By the time he broke free, whoever had set the trap was gone.
No Aria.
No vampire bodies.
Just the smell of smoke and mockery.
Back at the packhouse, Rowan didn’t bother hiding his frustration.
“This is exactly what the elders warned about,” he said. “You’re risking the pack for her.”
“She is my mate.”
“She hasn’t accepted you.”
The words hit harder than silver.
“But I sensed her first…I felt her!..I rescued her!!…I saw her first!!!”
He growled,claws dug deep into Rowan’s chest
Ryker turned away before his anger became something worse. Rowan wasn’t wrong. Aria had run from him. She feared him. She didn’t trust him enough to stay.
And now she knew nothing about the prophecy.
She didn’t know what she was capable of.
If she awakened that power alone, without guidance, without control… the destruction wouldn’t discriminate.
For the first time, doubt crept in not about loving her, but about whether he was strong enough to protect her from what she was becoming.
But one thing remained clear.
He would not let the council kill her.
He would not let Kristoff claim her.
And he would not stop searching.
Even if it meant turning against his own pack.
- Writer
