CH3 The Wolf in His Blood
1150 Words
Aric carried me out of the Moonstone Pit while my father’s pack watched in silence.
No one stopped him.
That frightened me more than if they had tried.
Silver Hollow had teeth. I had seen them used on rogues, servants, debtors, and weak wolves who stepped too far out of line. Yet every warrior lowered his eyes as Aric passed.
His arms stayed firm around me.
Not gentle.
Not cruel.
Certain.
The silver mark on my palm burned with each step. Crescent flame curled around the cut, lighting the space between our bodies. I tried to close my hand, but pain shot up my arm.
Aric felt it.
“Do not fight the mark,” he said.
“Then tell it to stop hurting.”
His mouth did not move, but something changed in his eyes.
Almost amusement.
“It is not hurting you.”
“What is it doing?”
“Opening.”
That was not better.
Behind us, the black lunar wolf followed without sound. Frost spread wherever its paws touched earth. Wolves pressed back as if moonfire could burn through obedience.
Selene stood near the cracked pit, moonpearls scattered around her slippers. For once, no one looked at her first.
They looked at me.
Not with pity now.
With fear.
I hated how quickly the difference fed something inside me.
My father followed us. “This cannot be done without council witness.”
Aric did not slow. “You have two hundred witnesses.”
“You cannot cross my border with my daughter.”
“You sentenced her to temple judgment.”
“I am still her Alpha.”
Aric stopped.
The pack stopped with him.
Slowly, he turned. A thin silver vein pulsed beneath his left eye.
His control was not as perfect as it looked.
“No,” Aric said. “You were her Alpha.”
Cassian’s face hardened. “Blood does not break because you speak.”
“Blood broke when you gave her to a knife.”
The words landed clean enough to cut.
My father’s gaze found mine. For a moment, I saw the old command in it.
Be silent.
Lower your eyes.
Make this easier for me.
My fingers twitched against Aric’s shoulder.
Seven meant no crying.
Eight meant survive until morning.
I did not lower my eyes.
Then Mara spoke from behind him.
“The claim is incomplete.”
Aric’s body went still.
The priestess stepped closer, careful to remain outside the black wolf’s shadow. “A lunar claim requires blood, consent, and witness. You have all three. But if the mark appeared before the vow sealed, the bond may be unstable.”
Aric’s arms tightened.
I felt it this time.
Not possession.
Alarm.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Mara’s veiled face turned toward me. “Whatever woke beneath the Moonstone has reached for him as well.”
The silver vein beneath Aric’s eye spread.
A second line appeared at his throat.
His jaw locked.
The black wolf growled.
Every wolf in Silver Hollow dropped to one knee.
I did not understand until the sound that left Aric’s chest stopped sounding human.
My blood went cold.
The lunar wolf was not only behind him.
It was inside him.
And it was waking.
“Aric,” Mara whispered.
He closed his eyes.
Pressure rolled outward, heavy and cold. Torches blew out one by one. The moon remained black above us.
I should have pushed away.
Instead, I placed my marked hand against his chest.
The moment my palm touched him, Aric stopped breathing.
So did the wolf.
Silver light flashed under my skin, racing from my palm into the black fabric over his heart. His body shuddered once. The pressure broke like ice under a blade.
Aric opened his eyes.
For the first time, he looked at me as if I had become more dangerous than him.
“What are you?” he asked.
The question hurt more than it should have.
All my life, people had asked what was wrong with me.
No one had ever asked what I was.
“I do not know,” I said.
The answer came out too honest.
My father heard it.
So did Mara.
So did Selene.
Selene stepped forward, her beauty cracking into fear. “She bewitched him.”
The accusation moved fast through the pack.
Bewitched.
Cursed.
Temple-born.
Wrong.
Old names wearing new mouths.
Aric lowered me to my feet, but he did not release me. His hand stayed at my back.
“Say that again,” he told Selene.
Her lips parted.
She was not used to consequences.
“She has no wolf,” Selene said, weaker now. “No scent. No bond. You saw what happened. She touched you and changed your power. That is not a mate. That is corruption.”
The black wolf showed its teeth.
Aric’s voice went quiet. “If you call her corrupt again, I will let my wolf answer.”
Selene stepped back.
My father caught her arm, but his eyes remained on me. He was no longer looking at a failed daughter.
He was looking at a threat he had raised.
That frightened me most.
A horn sounded beyond the gates.
Once.
Then twice.
Draven riders waited at the border road, black horses restless beneath silver harnesses. Their cloaks bore a crescent blade stitched in white thread.
Aric’s people.
My new prison.
My new protection.
I could not tell the difference yet.
Aric guided me toward the gate. Each step away from the pit felt like invisible threads tearing out of my skin.
At the threshold, I looked back.
Silver Hollow had been cruel, but it was the only world I knew. The kitchens. The cracked wall. The training yard I was never allowed to enter. The room where my mother’s name was never spoken.
My father stood among the broken moonpearls.
“Kaia,” he called.
His voice lowered.
“If you leave with him, you are no daughter of mine.”
The words should have broken me.
They did not.
Maybe because he had taken that from me years ago and only now noticed his hands were empty.
I turned away.
Aric watched my face. “Do you regret consenting?”
“Yes,” I said.
His expression did not change.
“But I would regret staying more.”
He lifted me onto a black horse before mounting behind me. His body caged mine with heat and cold at once. The mark on my palm pulsed. His wolf pressed close inside him, answering.
At the gate, Mara raised her voice.
“Lunar Alpha, beware the moonless girl. If the old words are true, she was not hidden for your sake.”
Aric gathered the reins.
The black moon flickered above us.
Mara’s final words followed us into the dark.
“She was hidden from your bloodline.”
- Writer
