CHAPTER FOUR — A NAME THAT BLEEDS
1092 Words
My mother’s body was still warm.
That was the worst part.
Warm enough to pretend she was sleeping.
Warm enough to pretend she’d open her eyes and laugh and tell me everything was a terrible mistake.
But she didn’t move.
Her head lay in my lap. My hands were shaking so violently I could barely keep them on her shoulders.
No one in the courtyard dared breathe.
Kaelen stood in front of me, chest rising and falling like he was fighting something inside himself. Rage. Shock. Something darker.
“Aria…” he said quietly.
I flinched away like his voice burned.
He froze.
Good.
Let him feel what I felt.
“What did your family do to mine?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
His silence was a confession.
I rose to my feet slowly, every bone in my body feeling hollow. Kaelen reached toward me again—but the look I gave him made him drop his hand.
“Don’t,” I rasped. “Not today.”
A ripple of tension moved through his wolves. They watched him like they expected him to snap in half.
Kaelen didn’t break.
But something inside him clearly did.
THE WOLVES GATHER
Lira stepped forward. “Alpha… what do we do with—”
“Silence,” Kaelen snapped.
His voice cracked like a whip. Lira immediately dropped her head.
Kaelen turned to his wolves, his expression shifting into something lethal.
“Clear the courtyard. Now.”
The pack scattered without hesitation.
But Kaelen stayed rooted in place, his jaw locked, his eyes burning holes into the ground like he was trying to swallow the truth before I could choke him with it.
THE CONFRONTATION
I stared at him. He stared at me. The air between us was thick, sharp, dangerous.
He finally spoke.
“I didn’t know.”
His voice was low, controlled. Almost gentle.
I hated it.
“You didn’t know what?” I shot back. “That my mother was alive? That someone took her? That she was terrified of you?”
His eyes flickered. “Terrified of me? Or of what wears my bloodline?”
“That sounds like the same thing.”
“No.” His voice hardened. “It isn’t.”
I crossed my arms, holding myself together. “She said the Bloodline King took her. She said I was meant to be a sacrifice. Explain that.”
He didn’t move.
For the first time since I’d met him… Kaelen looked unsure.
Not weak.
Not afraid.
Just… unsure.
“I don’t know what the Bloodline King has to do with you,” he said. “But I know he’s not part of my pack.”
“Then why did she say your family—”
“Because my bloodline is tied to his,” Kaelen cut in sharply. “Not by loyalty. By curse.”
I stared.
Curse.
The word didn’t belong in the world I knew. But the way he said it—like it tasted bitter in his mouth—made my skin crawl.
“What curse?” I whispered.
Before he could answer, Lira rushed back into the courtyard, breathless.
“Alpha!”
Kaelen turned, irritation flashing.
“What now?”
She swallowed. “Her body… it’s gone.”
My heart dropped so violently I staggered.
“What?” My voice broke. “No—no, she was just—she was right here—”
“She vanished,” Lira said, pale. “We turned for one second and—she disappeared.”
Cold slid down my spine.
Kaelen’s fists clenched. Hard. “Search the fortress. Every room. Every tunnel. Every shadow.”
Lira ran.
But Kaelen stayed frozen. Thinking. Calculating.
Terrified.
Not of me.
Not of the pack.
Of something much bigger.
“Aria,” he said softly. “Bodies don’t disappear.”
I whispered back, “Then what took her?”
He didn’t answer.
Because he already knew.
THE HUNT
Kaelen led me back into the hall, moving fast, his steps sharp and angry. I followed even though my legs felt numb.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.
“We’ll talk inside,” he said.
“No. Talk now.”
He stopped so suddenly I nearly ran into him.
Kaelen faced me, golden eyes fierce. “If the Bloodline King touched your mother, even once, she wasn’t just taken.”
My heartbeat thudded in my ears. “Then what?”
“She was marked,” he said quietly.
A shiver crawled over my skin.
Marked.
Used.
Controlled.
My mother’s wild eyes flashed in my memory.
“He’s watching,” she had whispered.
“He always watches.”
My voice shook. “What does that mean for me?”
His gaze locked onto mine. Something possessive. Protective. Terrified and furious all at once.
“It means he knows you’re mine now.”
The world stopped spinning.
I stared at him. “And?”
“And the Bloodline King does not share.”
A cold chill rippled through my bones.
“What does he want?” I whispered. “Why me?”
Kaelen stepped closer—close enough for his breath to warm my cheek—but his voice remained quiet, dark, deadly.
“I don’t know why he wants you,” he said. “But I know how he takes things.”
“How?”
Kaelen’s jaw clenched.
“He destroys everything in his path.”
My chest tightened.
Including my mother.
Including my father.
Including my pack.
Including me.
“Aria,” he said, softer now, “listen carefully.”
His hands lifted, cupping my face—slow, cautious, like he thought I might shatter.
“You are not dying,” he said. “You are not being taken. You are not disappearing. Not while I’m alive.”
Something in my chest cracked open.
Not affection.
Not love.
Just raw, unbearable emotion.
But before I could answer—
A tremor shook the walls.
A long, inhuman howl echoed from the woods.
Every hair on my body rose.
Kaelen stiffened instantly. “That’s not one of mine.”
The howl came again. Closer. Louder. Sickeningly familiar.
Kaelen grabbed my wrist. “Inside. Now.”
But I didn’t move.
Because this time…
I recognized the voice beneath the howl.
I whispered, “That’s my father.”
Kaelen’s grip tightened. “Aria—”
I jerked free, staring toward the forest, heart cracking open.
The howl came again, broken, tortured.
My father wasn’t calling for help.
He was screaming for me.
- Writer
