The fire beneath
987 Words
I didn’t sleep.
Even with the fire crackling and Kael gone, I couldn’t make my body relax. My nerves were raw. My blood was still pounding with the weight of his words, of everything I’d tried to outrun finally catching up.
Mate.
The word echoed in my head like a curse.
He couldn’t be right. He couldn’t. Because if he was…
Then everything I thought I was…unwanted, cursed, broken..was a lie.
And that scared me more than anything.
I sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the empty hearth and the claw marks etched into the stone near the window. They were old. Deep. A reminder that this place had seen violence long before me.
I tried to imagine Kael as a child. If he ever was one.
But all I could picture was the way his eyes looked right before he said mine. Like he meant it. Like the moon itself had chosen me for him—and him for me.
And the worst part?
Some secret, buried part of me wanted to believe it.
A knock at the door made me freeze.
Slow. Sharp. Not Kael.
I stayed still.
Another knock. This time followed by a whisper.
“Little wolf…”
My breath caught.
I knew that voice. Knew it from the pits. From the dreams that still made me wake up screaming.
It couldn’t be—
The door creaked open slightly, just enough to see golden eyes gleaming in the shadows.
My blood turned to ice.
Talon.
I scrambled back, my hands shaking. “How…how did you get in here?”
He stepped inside, grinning. His blond hair was matted with dirt and dried blood. His clothes torn. But his eyes burned like madness.
“Did you miss me, Aria?”
I backed toward the wall. “This is Blackthorn territory. If they find you—”
“Oh, they will.” His smile stretched. “But by then, you’ll be dead.”
He moved faster than I could blink. I cried out, but before his claws reached me, the door slammed open with a crash.
Kael.
His roar shook the walls.
One second Talon was standing over me. The next, Kael had him by the throat, slamming him into the stone wall with a crack that echoed like thunder.
“You dare touch her?” Kael’s voice was a growl, barely human.
Talon spat blood. “She’s ours. She doesn’t belong to you.”
Kael’s fist connected with his face. Once. Twice. Then again. Bones cracked. Blood sprayed.
I screamed, “Kael, stop!”
He didn’t. His wolf had taken over. Eyes glowing, muscles shaking with rage. He was going to kill him.
I stumbled forward, grabbing his arm.
“Please,” I whispered, “don’t.”
His breathing slowed. Slowly, painfully, his eyes shifted back to mine.
Not yellow. Not wild.
Just… Kael.
He dropped Talon, who crumpled to the floor, coughing blood.
Kael turned to me, cupping my face with bloodied hands. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I whispered, even though I was trembling.
His jaw clenched. “He dies.”
“Not here. Not now.”
He looked at me like I’d asked him to let the world burn.
But then he nodded, once.
He grabbed Talon by the hair and dragged him across the floor.
“Put him in the dungeons,” he snarled to the guards who came rushing in. “And anyone who let him into this house without scenting him—will answer to me.”
They bowed, too afraid to speak.
When Kael turned back to me, his face was unreadable.
But his hands—when they reached for mine—they were gentle. Careful.
“You should’ve locked the door,” he murmured.
“I did,” I whispered. “He broke it.”
He growled again, low and dangerous. “Next time, scream.”
“I didn’t want you to kill him.”
Kael’s brows drew together. “Why protect someone who hurt you?”
“Because I know what vengeance does to people.”
His silence was thick.
Then, softer, “Come here.”
I didn’t resist when he pulled me into his arms. I let my cheek press against his bare chest, let the sound of his heartbeat calm the shaking in my bones.
He smelled like earth and smoke and something raw. Something real.
“I won’t let anyone touch you again,” he said.
“I can protect myself.”
His lips brushed my temple. “You shouldn’t have to.”
I closed my eyes.
For one second, I let myself believe him.
⸻
Later that night, I stood at the window, watching the snow begin to fall. Tiny white flakes dusted the tips of the trees like ash.
Kael hadn’t said much after he returned from the dungeons.
But I could feel the shift in the air.
War was coming.
And somehow, I was the spark that lit the match.
⸻
Downstairs, in a room no one dared enter, Kael stared at the ancient crest carved into the dungeon wall.
A half-moon.
A bleeding eye.
And a wolf with two faces.
“You saw her mark?” he asked the prisoner.
Talon grinned with bloody teeth. “I saw more than that. She’s not what you think. She’s not just your mate.”
Kael stepped closer. “Then what is she?”
Talon laughed.
“A prophecy. A curse. A throne wrapped in skin.”
He looked up.
And whispered:
“She’s the fire that ends the bloodline.”
⸻
Back in the Alpha’s chamber, I traced the scar on my wrist.
The one they gave me when I refused the blood oath.
The one that burned hotter every time Kael touched me.
Something was waking inside me.
Something dangerous.
And when it rose
No one would be safe.
Not even him.
- Writer
