Blood Between Us
1194 Words
Elara’s POV
The last time I saw Draven Nightshade, I was bleeding on the forest floor, carrying his grandchild in my womb.
And now he stood before me again.
Unchanged.
Tall, silver-haired, eyes like molten blood. He looked like Kael, only colder. Sharper. His aura was suffocating, like fire trapped under ice. The cursed wolves flanked him in unnatural stillness, their hollow eyes locked on Cael.
His gaze flicked from me to Kael, who stood stiffly at my side, his chest rising and falling with fury, and then settled on Cael, who clung to my leg, too quiet for a child his age.
“Well,” Draven murmured. “Isn’t this… poetic.”
“Stay back,” I said, forcing the words through a dry throat. My hand gripped the hilt of the blade hidden in my coat, blessed silver with runes carved by Ysolde herself. I hadn’t touched it in years.
“Peace, Elara,” Draven said smoothly, his voice like silk and poison. “I didn’t come to hurt the boy. I came to see him.”
“You have no right.”
His eyes narrowed just slightly. “Don’t I? He is my blood.”
“He is not yours,” I snapped. “He’s mine and Kael’s. You lost the right to claim him the moment you tried to twist his fate.”
Draven turned to Kael now, almost with amusement. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
Kael growled low in his throat. “I remember the scent of death and I smell it all over you.”
A smile tugged at Draven’s mouth. “You’ve inherited your mother’s temper.”
“She’s not my mother,” Kael said.
Draven tilted his head. “No. She’s worse.”
Kael’s claws slid from his fingers. “You don’t get to talk about her. You don’t get to talk about anything, you’re the reason I lost everything.”
“No,” Draven said calmly. “She is.”
He pointed a long, pale finger at me.
My breath caught.
“Do you even know what she is?” he continued, stepping forward once. “Your precious Elara? She didn’t just run from you. She was raised by witches. Blood witches. Her grandmother’s the Oracle of the Forbidden Grove, keeper of lost magic. That boy you’re protecting… he’s not just your son.”
Kael didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
“He’s the vessel of the True Alpha,” Draven said. “The key to everything. And Elara has been lying to you since the moment you met her.”
I felt the cut of that accusation like a blade in my chest.
“I protected him,” I whispered. “From you. From Seraphina. From the curse you all played a part in.”
“You think keeping him in the shadows will stop what’s coming?” Draven asked. “You’ve seen what he can do, Elara. He burned a cursed wolf out of the air like it was nothing.”
“I’ve trained him to control it.”
“But he can’t,” Draven said. “Not when it wakes. And it will wake. You can’t stop prophecy.”
Kael finally spoke, voice low and sharp. “What prophecy?”
Draven looked at him with something almost close to pride. “The True Alpha rises once in ten generations. Born from royal lines, carried in moonlight, tempered by loss. That boy was conceived on the night of the blood eclipse. He is the bridge between our kind and the Old Blood.”
He took another step toward Cael.
Kael moved in front of him so fast the earth cracked beneath his feet.
“You take one more step,” Kael growled, “and I will kill you.”
Draven didn’t flinch. “You would fight your own father?”
“You were never my father,” Kael snarled. “You were a curse disguised as a myth.”
Silence fell again.
Then Draven exhaled slowly. “Pity.”
And then, the cursed wolves lunged.
I shoved Cael behind me and lifted my hands, magic racing up my arms like lightning. Kael shifted mid-leap, meeting the first beast in midair with a vicious snarl. Blood sprayed. Bones cracked.
I unleashed a blast of light that lit the forest in gold, sending two wolves tumbling into ash. My body screamed from the effort. My wards were cracking.
Cael let out a frightened gasp behind me, but he didn’t cry. He raised his tiny palms.
“Cael, no!”
It was too late.
A wave of power surged from him.
The entire clearing pulsed.
Every wolf stopped, frozen mid-motion, eyes glowing, their bodies trembling violently.
Then, they shattered. Like glass.
Every cursed wolf turned to dust.
Only Draven remained.
He didn’t look angry.
He looked satisfied.
“Good,” he said softly. “It’s awakening.”
Cael collapsed. I caught him just in time.
Kael ran to us, covered in blood, his eyes still wild. “Is he breathing?”
“Yes,” I said, holding Cael tightly. “But he used too much power.”
Draven stepped back into the shadows.
“You can’t stop what’s inside him,” he called. “Soon, he’ll need someone who understands it. And it won’t be either of you.”
“Don’t come back here,” I warned. “If you touch him again, I’ll bury you myself.”
Draven laughed. It echoed through the trees as he vanished into smoke.
***********************
We didn’t speak as we ran.
Kael carried Cael in his arms, never looking back. I led the way through the forest until the wards took us in again. By the time we reached the abandoned sanctuary, Cael was stirring weakly, mumbling spells in his sleep.
We made a fire and we waited.
But silence couldn’t hold forever.
“You knew,” Kael said finally, staring into the flames. “About the prophecy. About everything.”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you weren’t ready to hear it,” I said. “And because I didn’t want you to look at me like you’re looking at me now.”
He turned toward me. “Like I don’t trust you?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
“Neither do I,” I admitted. “But I know this, Cael is all that matters. And we can’t afford to be divided now.”
He nodded once.
Then looked at me with those eyes, the ones I’d dreamed about every night for four years.
“Elara,” he said softly. “What else have you hidden from me?”
I opened my mouth to answer.
But a knock came at the door.
We both froze.
Kael rose first, shielding Cael.
I stood behind him, heart pounding.
Then a voice, female, sharp, furious.
“I know you’re in there, Elara Vale.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Come out.”
Kael frowned. “Who is that?”
I already knew.
Nyra Voss.
Kael’s current mate.
- Writer
