Claimed by the Alpha's Moon

Chapter 6: The Mate's Vow

- Chapter 6: The Mate's Vow

I ran until my legs gave out and my lungs burned.

The forest around the Moonstone Pavilion was ancient and deep, the sort of place where old magic still lingered in the shadows between the trees. My heart pounding, silver tears running down my cheeks, I collapsed against a huge oak.

Tears of silver.

Because evidently my grief wasn't human any longer.

Kael and I stretched the mate bond taut, his terror and desperation spanning the length. He was trailing me, looking for me, but I had masked my odor using my power. I required time to consider matters, time to review what had just transpired.

Seraphina Blackthorn: A vampire who asserted to be Kael's deceased aunt and presided over Shadowbeasts.

Moreover, she wanted to share something with me regarding my potential.

Trying to mute the turmoil in my mind, I pushed my hands against my temples. Responding to my emotional turmoil, the celestial energy still ran through my veins and caused the air around me to shimmer with hardly constrained light.

"You cannot escape what you are.

Heart pounding, I turned. Seraphina came out from under a group of silver birch trees as though she had been waiting for me all along. She moved with liquid elegance, her platinum hair catching the moonlight like spun starfire.

"How did you find me?

She tilted her head, analyzing me with those ancient eyes. "Your power calls to mine, light to darkness, creation to destruction.

"What do you want from me?

She chuckled, the sound echoing across the trees. "The better question is: what do you want with yourself? You felt it there back, didn't you? The appetites. The need to unleash all you're holding back.

I had felt it. Part of me had desired to let go entirely when I had seen Kael injured and the Shadowbeasts had threatened everyone I loved. Stop fighting the power and allow it to consume everything.

"That's not who I am.

Seraphina circled me slowly and predatingly: "Isn't it? Tell me, Aria Silvermoon, what did you feel when you healed your mate? When you dissolved silver with nothing but your will?

"Relief. Happiness. Love.

"And tonight, when he regarded you like a monster, what did you sense? "

Words struck like a blow. I struggled to refuse them, since she was correct. Something inside me cracked when I noticed the fear in Kael's eyes and felt his cautious distance, even while he claimed to love me.

Hunger, darkness, weary of being under control.

"You felt rage," Seraphina continued. 'You felt the urge to demonstrate to all of them exactly what kind of monster you could be. To help them see their justified terror.

But my voice trembled.

"Yes. She stopped near enough for me to see the old sorrow in her eyes. "I know because I've been where you are. Little star, do you believe I was always a vampire? Do you believe I chose this life?

"I lack understanding.

I once was like you, born from the heavens, first in eight hundred years. Her smile was sour. "They too feared me. The pack. Born into love, the family I would. And when that terror became unbearable, when they judged I was too dangerous to live...

Though she drifted off, I might deduce the rest.

"They tried to kill you.

"Oh, they succeeded. Her fangs shimmered in the moonlight. "This body died that night. Still, Celestial power doesn't just disappear when the ship is destroyed. It evolves. Changes. Seeks fresh means of survival.

Horror crept up my spine. "Are you saying I'm going to become like you?

"I'm saying you can choose. " Tomorrow night, when the blood moon reaches its peak, your power will either consume you—or you'll learn to consume it. "

Before I could question what she meant, footfalls pounded through the bush. Wild eyes, Kael burst into the clearing, his clothing shredded from swinging back and forth to follow me.

His face turned grim as he noted the scene: me leaning against a tree, Seraphina standing way too near.

"Get away from her," he growled, waves of energy coming off him.

Seraphina laughed. "How touching. The faithful mate, ready to protect his dangerous prize. She glanced between us with amazed interest. "Tell me, nephew, what exactly are you protecting her from? Me? Or herself?

"Both, as required.

The words loomed in the air as an affront. Like I was just a problem to be controlled. I felt something inside me wilt in the offhand manner he said it.

"Kael," I whispered.

He turned away from me. Muscles coiled for assault, all of his attention was on Seraphina.

"You should have remained dead," he informed her.

Death is such a limited concept, she responded. we're not here to talk about my rebirth; rather, we're here because your spouse is about to face the same option I did ages ago.

What choice? "Seraphina looked at me, then back to him. "Whether to let the people she loves destroy her, or to destroy them first.

Kael's rage burned the mate bond, yet underneath it, I felt something else. Something that opened my heart like an egg cracked open.

Quit.

He assumed I would choose destruction. Anticipated me to transform into the monster everyone thought I was.

My voice nearly unheard, I said, "I would never harm him.

Seraphina agreed, "Not intentionally," but good intentions mean nothing when you're losing control. When the power determines it knows better than you do. It determines that anybody who threatens you—anyone who is afraid of you—must be eliminated.

"That won't happen.

"Won't it? " She pointed to the shimmering, tense energy surrounding me. "You're doing it right now. Answer emotional discomfort with brute strength. How long before that reaction becomes permanent? How long before every argument, every flash of fury, every instance of agony becomes a potential catastrophe?

I wanted to reject it, but her words resonated with me. The power was getting more difficult to manage every day. Every psychological rush surged through me like lightning over water.

Kael said, "There has to be another way," but his voice lacked confidence.

Seraphina sighed softly. "It is. But it demands a degree of trust I question whether either of you still have.

She started to dissolve once more, transparent in the moonlight.

She declared, "The blood moon rises tomorrow at midnight. Meet me at the Obsidian Falls if you want to learn how to survive what's coming. Otherwise. . . "

She shrugged, the motion somehow more frightening than any menace.

The Council will resolve this issue for us all.

Then she was gone, leaving only the smell of night-blooming jasmine and old blood.

Kael and I stood in the abrupt silence, the weight of all unspoken things pressing down between us. Tension permeated the mate bond, along with dread and a love that felt more like a weight than a gift.

he started.

I held out a palm, silver light dancing around my fingertips like collapsing stars. "Just. . . don't.

"I'm working to keep you safe.

"By treating me like a weapon that might go off? The power surged, cracking the air with energy. "By discussing 'containment procedures' with the other Alphas like I'm some kind of rabid animal?

His face turned white. "You heard it.

Lysandra ensured I did. Laughing, my sound was rough and split. "She also made certain I understood exactly how you see me now. Like I am something to be dreaded rather than loved.

That is not accurate.

"Isn't it? I drew nearer, letting him feel the intensity emanating from my skin, the force causing the very air around me to shimmer. "Look me in the eyes, Kael Blackthorn, and tell me you're not afraid of what I might become.

Then he closed his mouth. The silence lengthened between us, packed with all the words he couldn't bring himself to say.

At long last, he looked away.

"I thought so. The last of my hope turned to ash. "Your aunt was correct about one thing. I do have a choice to make.

Aria, please—the blood moon is tomorrow evening. I started walking backwards, creating distance between us even as the mate bond screamed in protest. "Maybe it's time I stopped fighting what I really am.

"What's that meant to imply? "

I smiled, finally seeing why Seraphina's expression had appeared so terrible.

Just in case, "It means you should probably caution the pack to avoid Obsidian Falls tomorrow night.

Aria, don't do this. Don't let her manipulate you.

"Manipulate me? I chuckled, electricity running through the sound like shattering glass. "She's the first person who's been straight with me about what I'm turning into. The first individual who hasn't examined me as though I'm a monster sporting the visage of someone they once loved.

Kael flinched as though I had smacked him.

He mumbled, "I do love you.

I know. And that was the worst element. He did love me. But he also had me in fear. And eventually, the worry was worse. But love isn't enough, is it? Not when you can't even look at me without doubting if I'm going to snap and kill everyone around me.

"I just need time to—"

The energy surged out of me in a wave that knocked him tripping backwards. Trees gasped. The ground fractured. Somewhere off, I heard glass breaking. "Time for what? How should I be caged? How can everything I am be stripped until I'm safe, tiny, and human once more?

That's not what I desire.

"So, Kael, what do you want? Now tears of silver left shimmering tracks on my cheeks. "Because I can't continue pretending this is effective. I can't keep pretending we will have some kind of happy ending when you can hardly bear to touch me anymore.

Hand extended, he strode toward me, but he stopped when warning heat flashed about me.

He said at last, "I want to find a way for us to be together. Without you losing yourself to power. With no one injured.

"And if there isn't a way? What if the decision is literally between being killed by the people I adore or becoming a monster?

He was silent for a long moment. Later on: "I won't let anyone hurt you. Pack law or no pack law.

"Even if I become precisely what they're afraid of?

Another stop, longer this time.

"Even then? I heard the suspicion in his voice, though. The pausing.

And I knew that when the moment came, when he had to choose between me and everyone else he cared about, I couldn't be certain which way he'd go.

I added, pulling back, "I need to think," and "I need to be alone.

"Aria—"

Though reluctantly, he nodded; still, I could feel his opposition via the mate link. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to follow me, to protect me, to keep me close.

From where I stood, however, protection and jail were becoming indistinguishable.

Turning away, deeper into the woods along a path only I could see, I went. Kael sensed me behind him, watching, till the trees devoured me.

Everything will shift tomorrow evening.

The only question was whether I'd still be me when it did—or if I'd become something else entirely.

Something that would cause Seraphina Blackthorn to seem like a bedtime story for children.

One last thought with crystal definition echoed through my mind as I vanished into the darkness:

Maybe it was time to quit running from the monster I was becoming.

Maybe it was time to embrace her instead.