Chapter5
1174 Words
Kade Blackthorn
There was blood on the training grounds again.
Not from battle.
From me.
I stood in the center of the arena, chest heaving, knuckles raw and dripping. Around me, two warriors lay groaning, steam rising off their skin in the cold morning air. A third leaned against the stone wall, panting and holding a dislocated shoulder.
Thorne was the only one still on his feet.
He didn’t speak as I wiped my hand on my shirt and turned away. He knew better than to challenge me right now.
But he didn’t need words. His silence said everything.
You’re unraveling.
“I told them to block properly,” I said flatly.
“You’ve run the elite squad into the dirt three mornings in a row. They’re not the problem.”
I growled low in my throat. The wolf beneath my skin snarled in agreement—defiant, volatile.
“Tell them to recover,” I said. “We’re done for today.”
“Are we?” Thorne asked, stepping in front of me. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re using the pack to punish yourself.”
My eyes snapped to his, and for a second, my control frayed. My wolf lunged beneath the surface.
Thorne didn’t flinch.
“You’ve been off ever since the bond broke,” he said. “Snapping at everyone. Losing focus. Taking unnecessary patrols. Ignoring Council meetings. The Elders are talking.”
“Let them talk.”
“They don’t want to talk,” he said. “They want to challenge.”
I stilled.
That got my attention.
“Who?”
“Jorek. Maybe Fen. And Riva’s aligned with them now. They think you’re unstable.”
“I’m stronger than all of them.”
“Strength isn’t the issue anymore, Kade. Instability is. You rejected your mate—during a blood moon, no less. That kind of cosmic backlash ripples. They feel it. And they smell your guilt like blood in the water.”
I gritted my teeth.
I am Alpha. Mine is the law.
But even as I thought it, I knew it wasn’t enough.
Not when every night my wolf dragged me into dreams filled with silver eyes and lavender scent.
Not when I woke up with her name in my mouth.
Aria.
I’d broken the bond.
So why did she still live in me?
Later — In the Council Hall
The chamber was carved from obsidian, lit only by torchlight. The Elders sat in a semicircle like judges. Behind them, symbols of Blackfang’s bloodline hung on crimson banners—wolf, fang, flame.
I stood at the center.
Thorne was beside me, rigid and silent.
“Alpha,” Elder Jorek said, his voice cold. “You’ve been absent from your duties. Is it true you rejected your fated mate?”
Straight to the throat. Typical Jorek.
“I did,” I said.
“And you did so without consulting the Council,” he said. “Without marking her. Without even bringing her before us for evaluation.”
“She was unstable.”
“So are you.”
A low snarl rumbled in my chest.
“Careful,” I said.
“No one questions your strength, Alpha,” said Elder Fen, stroking his graying beard. “But the old ways are returning. The blood moon has marked a shift. And the rejection… it echoed through the leylines. Even the outer packs felt it. You’ve created a rift.”
“She was a rogue,” I snapped. “A wild wolf with no discipline and no legacy. You want me to bring that into our bloodline?”
“And yet,” said a soft voice from the upper tier, “she was chosen by the moon.”
I turned.
Rhea.
My sister stepped from the shadows, her pale braid coiled like a snake over her shoulder. Her presence shifted the room instantly—cool, calculating, disarmingly serene.
She was the only one in Blackfang who could silence a room without growling.
Rhea Blackthorn—my younger sister. Silver-tongued. Sharper than any blade in my armory. Her loyalty was rarely given and never blind.
“Rhea,” I said tightly. “This is not your concern.”
“It’s exactly my concern,” she said, descending the stairs. “When the Alpha bleeds power, the pack feels it. And when the Alpha makes an enemy of fate, the consequences ripple outward.”
“I didn’t make an enemy of fate,” I said. “I made a decision.”
“You made a wound,” she said. “And it hasn’t closed.”
I stared at her.
She looked back with eyes that were nearly the same as mine—except colder.
“The girl,” Rhea said. “What was her name?”
“Aria.”
She tilted her head. “Aria what?”
“I don’t know.”
A pause. A slight tightening in Rhea’s posture.
“She’s gone,” I added. “That’s all that matters.”
“No,” she said softly. “That’s the problem. She’s not.”
The forest was on fire.
But it didn’t burn.
The flames were silver-white, trailing through trees like silk. I stood at the edge of the glade, barefoot, shirtless, the mark of Alpha pulsing on my shoulder.
And in the center of the blaze stood Aria.
She didn’t look broken.
She looked radiant.
Moonlight clung to her skin. Her eyes were brighter than any full moon I’d ever seen.
She wasn’t looking at me.
She was looking through me.
And she was smiling.
Not at me.
At something behind me.
I turned—
—and saw a wolf made of shadow. No eyes. Just fangs. Dripping black smoke.
It lunged for me.
I woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat, growling.
My wolf was pacing again, agitated beyond reason.
The message was clear.
Something was coming.
And it wore her name.
I found Rhea in the observatory tower at dawn, sipping tea like a queen of ice and secrets.
She didn’t turn when I entered.
“You’ve felt it,” she said.
“The dream?”
“No. The bond.” She set her cup down. “You think it’s broken, but it isn’t. Not fully. She’s still connected to you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” she asked, facing me. “Or is it that you severed the tie... but not the truth?”
I said nothing.
Rhea stepped close.
“You think rejecting her was control. It wasn’t. It was fear. The girl is more than your mate. She’s a key.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But when the moon bleeds, the gates open. You know the legends.”
Old stories. f*******n ones.
About Moonborn wolves and sealed magic. About fated mates awakening dormant bloodlines.
“I buried those myths for a reason,” I said.
“You might have to unbury them,” she replied. “Before they bury you.”
- Writer
