Chapter Nine: Shadows of the Past
917 Words
The letter came at dawn.
Sealed with the black wax of the Holt family crest.
Kade found it pinned to the Academy gates, stabbed into the wood with a silver dagger—no courier, no guards, no scent. Only cold wind and a growing sense of dread.
He tore it open with steady hands, but the words inside made his blood run ice cold.
The girl who wears a boy’s name is not yours to keep.
She belongs to the Holt bloodline.
Return her to us by the next full moon—or we come to take her.
No signature.
None was needed.
Everyone knew the hand behind it: Alpha Magnus Holt.
Ryker’s father.
The man who’d orchestrated the original betrothal.
The one who never forgave betrayal.
And now he knew exactly where Aria was.
***
Kade found her in the sparring yard, running drills with three younger trainees. Her laughter caught on the breeze, unguarded for once. Her sleeves were rolled to her elbows, hair tied back, the curve of her smile unburdened by fear.
He almost didn’t want to tell her.
But he stepped into the ring anyway, the letter clenched in his hand.
“Aria,” he called.
She turned, brows lifting.
One look at his face, and her smile vanished.
The trainees dispersed.
She walked toward him slowly, eyes sharp. “What happened?”
He handed her the note.
She read it once, then again. Her hands trembled.
“No seal?” she asked quietly.
Kade shook his head. “He wants deniability. If the Academy intervenes, he can deny it.”
She folded the note carefully, mechanically, like the paper might slice her fingers. “He knows I’m here.”
“He knows everything.”
Aria stared past him, toward the tree line. Her jaw set.
“He won’t send Ryker again,” she said. “Not after what happened.”
“No,” Kade agreed. “He’ll come himself.”
She nodded once, eyes hardening. “Then I’ll be ready.”
***
Later that night, she didn’t sleep.
The nightmares came even before she closed her eyes—memories that weren’t distant enough to fade.
Her mother’s face, pale and trembling the day Magnus Holt arrived with the betrothal contract.
The look in her father’s eyes: not pride, not love—strategy.
“You’ll secure our future,” he’d said.
Aria had been thirteen.
She still remembered the cold press of Magnus’s lips to her forehead.
“You’ll make a fine wolf,” he’d whispered. “Once you’re broken in.”
She sat up in the dark, heart hammering.
This was why she ran.
Why she risked everything.
But now the shadows were circling again.
And this time, she couldn’t just run.
***
By morning, the Academy was buzzing.
The Council had convened behind closed doors. The Holt family had too much power to dismiss, and while Magnus had no official jurisdiction here, politics whispered louder than justice.
Rumors flew.
Some said Aria would be expelled before it became a war.
Some said Magnus had already arrived.
Kade stayed close to her side through it all—present but not possessive, ready but restrained.
It was Aria who approached Headmaster Thorne.
“I need to speak with you. Alone.”
He studied her. Then nodded once and led her into the central chamber.
The door closed behind them with a sound like a final verdict.
***
The room was bare but commanding—stone walls, high windows, a single ironwood desk.
Thorne gestured for her to sit. “I take it this is about the Holts.”
“I assume you’ve read the letter.”
He nodded.
“I’m not property,” she said, voice quiet but unflinching.
“No,” Thorne agreed.
“But they’ll come for me anyway.”
“Yes.”
She hesitated, then: “If I tell you everything… can you protect me?”
Thorne leaned back in his chair. “That depends on what everything means.”
She swallowed hard.
“My name is Aria Caelan Velen. Daughter of Lord Caelan of the Eastern Pass. Born female. Disguised myself as male to escape a forced marriage into the Holt bloodline. I falsified my identity to enroll.”
Thorne didn’t speak for a long time.
When he finally did, it was only: “You understand the severity of this confession?”
“I do.”
“And you still want to stay?”
Aria looked him in the eye.
“I want to fight.”
For a moment, something unreadable passed over Thorne’s face—surprise? Admiration?
Then he nodded.
“Very well. You will remain at the Academy under full protection. I will convene the Elders tonight. The Holts may try to intimidate us, but this is our ground.”
Relief hit her like a wave, but it was laced with dread. “They won’t come quietly.”
“I know.”
He stood and offered his hand.
“To the shadows,” he said, voice like steel, “we show teeth.”
***
That night, the moon rose red.
And just beyond the outer walls, a black carriage arrived.
Aria watched from her window, breath caught in her throat.
Magnus Holt stepped down, silver hair tied at his nape, black coat dusted with ash. Beside him stood a woman—sharp-eyed, predatory, cloaked in wolf’s fur.
Not his mate.
His Enforcer.
Aria’s blood went cold.
He wasn’t here to negotiate.
He was here to claim.
- Writer
