Chapter 4
808 Words
Chapter Four – Marked by Shadows
The sound of voices reached Aria long before she stepped outside.
The great hall of Blackridge was filled with wolves — men and women whose sharp eyes followed her every move as she descended the staircase. Their murmurs rippled like a current through the room, soft but cutting.
That’s her.
The human.
The Moonveil girl.
Her pulse quickened. She’d faced fear before, but this was something else entirely. The weight of their gaze pressed down like a living thing.
Lucian stood at the far end of the room, a tall shadow against the light pouring through the high windows. His presence silenced the noise before he even spoke.
“Enough,” he said, voice steady and cold.
Instant quiet.
He looked at her then — really looked at her — and the room seemed to narrow until there was only him. The Alpha of Blackridge, every inch of him control and command.
Aria stopped a few steps away. Her breath trembled.
“This is Aria,” he said finally, turning his attention back to the pack. “She is under my protection. No one touches her. No one questions her presence here.”
A low murmur rose again, this time tinged with disbelief.
A man from the front row stepped forward. He was older, broad-shouldered, with scars across his neck. “With respect, Alpha,” he began, “she’s human. A Moonveil human. You expect us to trust her?”
Lucian’s jaw tightened. “I expect you to obey.”
The man hesitated, eyes darting toward Aria. “If she brings danger here—”
“She already has,” Lucian interrupted softly. “But not the kind you think.”
The pack exchanged uneasy glances. The tension thickened.
Lucian’s eyes flicked back to Aria. “Come,” he said, extending his hand.
For a moment, she couldn’t move. Every instinct screamed to stay still. But the room waited, and when she finally placed her hand in his, his warmth steadied her more than she wanted to admit.
He guided her forward — not gently, but firmly, like someone leading a charge.
“She’s not an outsider,” he said to the watching crowd. “She’s proof that the laws we’ve lived by are wrong.”
The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush bone.
Lucian’s gaze swept the room once more, daring anyone to speak. None did.
When it was over, he led her out through a side door, down a quiet corridor that smelled faintly of rain and old wood. Only when they were alone did Aria find her voice again.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, still shaken. “You made them hate me even more.”
Lucian stopped. His back was to her, shoulders tense. “They needed to see where you stand.”
“By your side?” she whispered. “Or in your shadow?”
He turned then, and there was something raw in his eyes — something that cracked through all the iron he wrapped himself in.
“You don’t understand,” he said quietly. “Wolves respect power. If I don’t claim you, they’ll destroy you.”
She blinked, startled. “Claim me?”
His gaze held hers, unflinching. “It’s the only way to keep you safe.”
Aria took a step back, her heart pounding. “You talk about me like I’m a possession.”
Lucian’s voice softened, though his expression didn’t. “You’re not,” he said. “But if they think you are, you’ll live.”
The logic was brutal — and, in its own way, terrifyingly protective.
“I don’t want to belong to anyone,” she said finally.
His lips twitched, almost a smile. “Then don’t. But let them think you do.”
For a long moment, neither of them moved. The space between them pulsed with everything unspoken — fear, defiance, something dangerously close to longing.
Finally, Lucian turned away. “Dinner’s at eight,” he said. “You’ll sit beside me again.”
He paused at the doorway, his voice low. “And Aria… if anyone touches you, tell me. I’ll handle it.”
Then he was gone.
Outside, the sky had darkened to the color of ink.
Aria went to the window and pressed her hand to the glass. The forest stretched endlessly beyond, quiet and alive. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled — long and low, a sound that felt both lonely and protective.
She closed her eyes.
Every part of her wanted to hate him.
But beneath that anger was something more dangerous — a curiosity she couldn’t kill.
Because when Lucian looked at her, she didn’t see a monster.
She saw a man fighting one inside himself.
And somehow, that scared her most of all.
- Writer
