THE THREAT,SHARED SCARS
1040 Words
“Kael still lives.”
The words fell into the war room like a stone into a pond. The ripple was fear.
“Hmm… that’s something, you know,” Borin said, drumming his claws against the obsidian table. The new Alpha of the Blackfang didn’t look surprised. He looked calculating. Torchlight caught the silver scars crisscrossing his face each one a battle Kael hadn’t been there for. “We’re not safe.”
The war room stank of old blood and strategy. Maps carved into wolf hide covered the walls, and the air was thick with the musk of too many predators in one space.
It had happened after the Queen’s mirror swallowed Kael. With their Alpha gone, the Blackfang did the unthinkable: they brokered a truce with the Veil. Witches and wolves, sharing power. Sharing secrets. It made them stronger than either had ever been alone. Stronger than they had any right to be.
And the price? Find Kael. End him.
For centuries, they hunted. Scryed. Burned villages on rumors. Then, after three hundred years of silence, Borin declared it done. “Kael Blackthorn is no more.” He took the Alpha mantle. He ruled with an iron fist, his alliance with the Veil unshakable.
Until tonight.
“What do we do about Kael, Lord Borin?” Bella’s voice was silk over a knife. One of the Veil’s ranked elders, she stood at Borin’s right hand, her eyes like chips of winter sky. The runes tattooed down her throat glowed faintly in the torchlight.
“We need the blood of the royal Veil,” she continued, each word measured. “And Elena is the last of them. Her being under Kael’s protection is a threat we can’t ignore.” She tilted her head. “Why not just smash the mirror? Break it and be done?”
On the other side of the world, in a Victorian bedroom that smelled of lemon polish and fear, Kael paced.
Not physically. He had no room to pace. But his mind was a caged beast, wearing a rut into the cold floor of his prison. He’d heard every word. The mirror didn’t just show him Elena. Sometimes, when the moon was right and his rage was hot enough, it showed him them.
The thing is,Bella’s voice echoed in his head as he stalked the length of his glass, Kael isn’t just a common Alpha. He’s the first and last of his kind.
He hated that she was right.
He doesn’t need to make contact with you to hurt you. With just a howl, he can make you useless. Vulnerable.
He’d done it minutes ago. Torn through his own pack like paper.
Staring at him alone, into those golden eyes of his, can shut down your nervous system. Nobody has ever dared look into Kael’s eyes… aside from Chloe. The Queen of the Veil. The one who caused his predicament.
Chloe. The name was acid on his tongue.
Whatever Kael is doing with Elena… believe me, he’s up to something. And I can tell it’s definitely not good. Kael has always had a funny way of executing his plans. We need to be careful.
Kael stopped. Pressed his forehead to the glass. It was cold. Always cold.
We need a way to get to Elena before Kael succeeds. We’ll need to act fast… there’s something we can do to avert this. It’ll be fine. I know Kael, and he won’t be much of a difference now that he’s entrapped.
Entrapped. The word was a hook in his gut.
Track Elena to a secluded spot. Instead of killing her, we’ll just get a drop of her blood. Maybe that will work.
A drop of royal Veil blood. That’s all they needed for whatever ritual they were planning.
Kael’s claws extended on instinct, scraping glass. Why are the Blackfang after Elena? The question was a drumbeat. She’s Veil, yes. But she’s nothing to them. Unless…
Unless they knew.
“Are you okay?”
His voice was softer than he intended. Rough from the howl, but gentle.
Elena didn’t answer. She sat on the hardwood floor, hugging her knees, trembling so hard her teeth chattered. The chandelier above them was missing half its crystals. The air still smelled like ozone and adrenaline. Like the aftermath of lightning.
“It’s okay,” Kael tried again. “They’re gone. For now.”
She couldn’t shake it. The fear had roots now, deep in her bones. Her breath came in short, panicked bursts. “Wha… what… what happened?” The words were broken. “Why me?”
The question hung in the air, small and lost.
Kael saw it then-really saw her. Not the Daughter of the Veil. Not his key to freedom. Just a girl. Twenty-three. Ink-stained fingers. Coffee in her hair. A girl who’d inherited a house, a curse, and now a target on her back.
They’re here for you and nobody can save you,he wanted to say. It was the truth. The tactical truth.
Instead, he said, “How about you find a way to get me out of here? Maybe I can help you.”
The words were pragmatic. Mercenary.
Elena didn’t even hear them. She was locked inside her own head, eyes wide and unseeing. “Am I… am I not safe? Why? Why now?”
Her voice was a whisper. A child’s voice.
And it did something to Kael. Something no battle, no betrayal, no century of isolation had ever done.
It hurt.
He was Alpha. He was born to protect his pack, his territory, his own. And this girl this trembling, terrified girl was, by some cruel twist of fate, his. His responsibility. His to keep alive.
The mirror had made him a watcher. But the howl had made him her guardian.
Outside, the wind picked up, rattling the old windows. The house groaned, settling. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. Not Kael. One of them.
The hunt had begun.
Will Elena shake off this feeling and be ready for what’s really coming for her?
Will Kael, monster and myth, truly offer her the protection she needs… or is she just another pawn in his game for revenge?
And time was bleeding out.
- Writer
