Chapter 7: Fire in the Blood
1073 Words
The Gauntlet wasn’t just a test.
It was a reckoning.
A centuries-old rite of passage for those closest to graduating from the Alpha Academy—a brutal, week-long series of trials designed to break the weak, strip the proud, and crown the unshakable. Only the top five trainees were ever invited. Most didn’t make it through all seven days. Some never returned.
Aria stood at the edge of the ancient trial ring, boots planted in frozen dirt, breath steaming in the crisp dawn air. Around her, the others gathered—each of them stronger, faster, or more experienced than her.
But none of them had bled for this place like she had.
None of them had earned it like she had.
Kade stood behind the perimeter, arms crossed, face unreadable—but his eyes met hers across the frost-covered grass and said everything she needed to hear:
You were made for this.
Aria clenched her jaw.
Let them see fire.
***
Day One: The Chase.
They were released into the wildlands with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a single command: Survive.
No food. No map. No alliances.
And one predator.
Ryker.
He volunteered.
The Council agreed.
Because of course they did.
Aria ran harder than she ever had in her life, pulse thundering in her ears. The cold cut through her lungs like knives. She didn’t stop, didn’t look back. She knew that scent now—what it meant, what it promised. Pain. Possession. The end of her freedom.
Twice she caught the echo of his snarl. Once she found claw marks on a tree she knew hadn’t been there hours before.
But she didn’t fall.
She didn’t break.
By nightfall, three trainees had been captured.
Aria was not one of them.
***
Day Three: The Trial of Flame.
Blindfolded. Shackled. Thrown into a ring of fire and forced to shift without control.
If she lost it, the fire would consume her.
If she stayed too long in her human form, she’d suffocate.
This was the one they said weeded out the fakes.
But her wolf didn’t hesitate.
Pain bloomed behind her eyes, bright as lightning. Her skin split. Bones cracked. Fire licked her feet.
But when she emerged, fur dark as dusk and eyes gold with fury, the silence of the watching crowd was electric.
No one had shifted that fast in years.
And when her wolf howled, even the instructors stepped back.
***
Day Four: The Mind.
A test of memory, pressure, intuition. Tactical puzzles laced with illusions. Designed to destabilize. To twist the mind against itself.
Aria walked through a hall that showed her father’s face. Her mother’s.
Kade’s body—lifeless, torn.
And then Ryker.
His eyes gleamed. “You’ll never be free of me.”
But it wasn’t real.
She knew it wasn’t real.
Her hands were shaking when she finished the maze, but her mind was intact. Clear. Focused.
She came out third fastest.
The instructors were watching her now with new eyes.
No longer confused.
No longer dismissive.
Wary.
***
Day Six: The Arena.
Combat.
No weapons. No mercy. One-on-one.
Losers were removed from the Gauntlet.
Winners advanced to the final trial.
Aria stood in the ring, shoulders tense, blood already dried in her hair from the previous match. Her opponent now?
Ryker.
The crowd knew. The instructors didn’t stop it.
She squared her stance.
He grinned, mouth bloodstained. “Still pretending to be one of us?”
“No,” she said, low and dangerous. “I’m proving I’m better.”
He lunged first—fast, brutal, confident.
She moved like water.
He was stronger.
She was smarter.
She ducked a blow, caught his wrist, twisted, drove her elbow into his ribs. He grunted, staggered back.
“Little wolf’s got teeth,” he said.
She didn’t respond. Her body moved before thought could catch up. Strike. Evade. Lure. Trap.
He overextended.
She swept his legs.
He hit the ground.
She pounced—arm across his throat, knee to his chest.
And for the first time, Ryker’s expression cracked.
Fear.
True and sharp.
“I am not yours,” she growled into his ear. And then she let him go.
Because she didn’t need to end him to prove she’d already won.
The bell rang.
The crowd didn’t cheer.
They stared. Stunned.
Aria Velen—an outsider, a runaway, a she-wolf—had bested Ryker Holt in clean, honorable combat.
There was no going back now.
***
Day Seven: The Final Trial.
They didn’t tell her what it would be.
Not until she stood at the top of the final hill, chest heaving, covered in bruises and dried blood.
Alpha Thorne approached her, alone.
He didn’t speak for a long time.
Then, finally: “Tell me what an Alpha is.”
Aria blinked.
“That’s the trial?”
He said nothing.
She swallowed hard.
“An Alpha is not the strongest in the room,” she said quietly. “They’re the one who knows when to fight and when to lead.”
Still, Thorne said nothing.
“An Alpha protects those who can’t fight yet. They rise so others know they can too. An Alpha doesn’t demand loyalty—they earn it.”
Her voice cracked.
“An Alpha doesn’t just survive the fire. They carry others through it.”
Thorne studied her.
Then he nodded.
“Then, Aria Velen—by right of trial, strength of will, and fire in your blood—you are recognized as a full heir of the Alpha Line.”
The breath she let out shook her to her core.
“You belong,” he said.
And this time, she believed him.
***
That night, the sky was clear. Stars like shattered diamonds above the treetops.
Kade found her again where he always did—on the edge of quiet.
She was wrapped in a blanket, freshly cleaned, a bandage across her jaw. He didn’t speak. Just sat beside her.
After a long moment, she whispered, “I beat him.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“I know.”
She looked at him. “Was that the right choice?”
He met her eyes, voice low and certain. “Yes. Because you’re not like him.”
Silence stretched.
Then he took her hand. Quiet. Solid. Sure.
“You’re better.”
She didn’t cry.
But something inside her healed. Just a little.
- Writer
