Bite Me Softly

Chapter 14: Forbidden Letters

It started in the hallway.

The fluorescent lights above flickered like they couldn’t decide whether to stay lit, and the chatter around me blurred into background noise.

“Skipping Kade duty today?”

The voice came from behind me, too casual to be innocent. I turned slowly.

Ryker leaned against a row of lockers like he had been waiting. His expression was playful, but his eyes were sharp.

“I didn’t realize I was assigned to him,” I said.

“You’ve been glued to his side every chance you get. Figured it was official.”

I didn’t answer.

Ryker pushed off the lockers and nodded his head toward the end of the hall. “Walk with me.”

The way he said it made it clear it wasn’t a suggestion.

I followed, even though every instinct told me not to. Not because I didn’t trust him, though I wasn’t sure I did, but because something in his tone had shifted. Ryker didn’t normally drop the act. Today, he had.

We stopped in a quiet hallway near the science wing, away from the classrooms, tucked into a pocket of silence.

He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “How are you feeling?”

“Why?”

“Because this is when it starts to feel different.”

His voice was quieter now. Almost careful.

“What is?” I asked.

“Everything,” he said. “Your body. Your mind. It’s not just about the bite, Aria. That was only the start.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “Kade told me some of it. About the bond.”

Ryker’s eyes flickered. “Did he tell you what happens when it settles? When it locks in?”

I hesitated. “He said we’d feel each other. Like… a connection.”

“That’s a pretty version of it.”

I blinked. “What’s the not-so-pretty version?”

Ryker looked at me like he was measuring something. Then he said, “When the bond finishes forming, it stops being just emotional. It can change you. The way you think. The way you feel. It messes with boundaries. Sometimes, it doesn’t stop with sensing emotions. You start sharing pain. Instincts. Needs. Especially if the bite was strong.”

A chill swept up my spine. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“I know,” he said. “Neither did Kade. That’s why he’s trying so hard to stay in control. But something else is going on, Aria. Something bigger.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ryker’s gaze dropped. “That rogue who attacked you? He wasn’t acting alone.”

I stared at him. “So there are more?”

“Yes. And whoever sent him knew something about you. They knew to go after you.”

That landed like a punch.

“Why me?” I whispered. “What’s so special about me?”

Ryker hesitated. For once, he didn’t have a clever answer.

Then he said, “Your bloodline.”

My chest tightened. “What does that mean?”

He pushed off the wall and took a step closer, voice lower now. “I’ve seen your last name before. A long time ago. Some of us are born into this, Aria. Some of us come from lines that go back further than anyone remembers. And some of those bloodlines… are cursed. Or blessed. Depending on who you ask.”

I shook my head. “My family’s never had anything to do with this. My parents- ”

“I’m sure there’s plenty you don’t know about your own family history,” Ryker cut in gently. “Ever wonder what?”

I swallowed hard.

“Start wondering,” he said. “Look through your house. Letters. Photos. Names. Especially your mom’s side.”

He was already backing away, but before he turned the corner, he added, “Just be careful. You’re not as alone in this as you think. But not everyone watching you wants to help.”

And then he was gone.

I skipped my last class and headed straight home.

I tore through drawers, old keepsake boxes, and the piles of things my aunt always insisted were just “clutter.” Most of it was junk. Receipts. Expired coupons. A cookbook from 1994.

But the attic…

I hadn’t been up there in years.

Dust clung to everything, and the light from the single bulb overhead barely reached the corners. I found a cedar box beneath a blanket, shoved to the back behind an old suitcase.

Inside were letters, dozens of them. All addressed to my mom. The handwriting on some was careful. Others looked like they’d been scrawled in a panic.

A name appeared again and again: Bran.

One envelope was open. The letter inside was short. No date. No greeting.

You need to tell her. Before it’s too late. The bloodline doesn’t just vanish. It waits.

I sat back on my heels, heart pounding.

At the bottom of the box was a photograph. My mother, maybe sixteen, standing beside a tall man with deep eyes and a strange intensity to his stare. On the back, in her handwriting: Bran. He said it skips generations.

The air felt thinner.

Everything Ryker had said played back in my head. Curses. Bloodlines. Something old waking up inside me.

I wasn’t just changing because of Kade. Something in me had already been marked, long before I ever crossed paths with him.

And I was going to find out why.

Even if it meant uncovering things that were never supposed to come to light.

The photo felt heavier than it should.

I held it between my fingers as I sat at the kitchen table, the house quiet around me except for the low hum of the refrigerator. Light from the window slanted across the floor in soft gold, but it couldn’t warm the unease in my chest.

I had stared at the image for what felt like hours. My mother’s younger face. Her eyes looked too much like mine. They appeared differently in my memory. And the man beside her, Bran, staring down the camera like he knew the future.

The box of letters stayed tucked beneath the table. I hadn’t had the nerve to read them all yet. I didn’t know if I wanted to.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway. I straightened, sliding the photo closer to me as my aunt walked in carrying a laundry basket.

“Oh, hey, honey,” she said, pausing. “You’re home early.”

I nodded, waiting a beat. Then I said, “Can we talk?”

She tilted her head slightly. “Of course. Everything okay?”

I hesitated. “I just have… some questions.”

She set the basket down and moved to sit across from me. “About what?”

I turned the photo toward her.

Her face changed. Not shock. Not confusion. Just… quiet recognition. And maybe a little sadness.

“I found it in the attic,” I said softly.

She took a breath and didn’t touch the photo. “I was wondering when you’d start asking.”

I looked at her, heart tapping faster. “Who is he? Who is Bran?”

“My brother,” she said after a moment. “Your uncle.”

I blinked. “I didn’t know Mom had a brother.”

“There are a lot of things you weren’t told, Aria. Things I was trying to protect you from.”

I swallowed. “He said… something about it skipping generations. About bloodlines.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “He always believed in things I didn’t. Family gifts. Curses. Bonds. He talked about it like it was part of some bigger legacy. Your mom wanted nothing to do with it. She left. She thought if she got away, it wouldn’t matter.”

“But it followed her?” I asked quietly.

Her eyes met mine. “In a way, yes. And when you were born, Bran tried to get in contact. She pushed him away.”

“Why?”

“She was afraid,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Afraid you’d be taken from her. That he’d drag her back into a world she tried to run from.”

I sat with that. With the image of my mom, younger, scared, desperate to outrun something she didn’t understand.

“She was already dragging me into something,” I murmured. “Our house wasn’t safe. She wasn’t safe. I don’t remember most of the good. Just the fear.”

My aunt reached across the table, laying her hand gently over mine. “I know. The sister I knew growing up is not the same woman you know as your mother. That’s also why I didn’t tell you sooner. I wanted to give you a chance to live a life that wasn’t filled with the same kind of fear she lived with.”

“But I’m already in it now,” I said. “There are people after me. The Thornhill family has been watching me. Kade says I’m changing. Ryker told me of a bond that can… mess with your mind. That it doesn’t stop at feelings.”

Her expression darkened at the Thornhill name, but she didn’t interrupt.

“Someone’s targeting me,” I added. “And they knew something about me before I even knew it myself. That means there’s more I need to know. More you haven’t told me.”

My aunt nodded slowly. “There is.”

“Then please,” I said, voice breaking just a little. “Tell me.”

She exhaled, long and quiet.

“There’s a reason Bran believed you were special. Our family, on your mother’s side, comes from a long line of Seers. Not every generation gets the gift. Your mother didn’t. I didn’t. But Bran... he thought it would come back. He thought it would skip, like it always does, and land in someone new. He believed that someone was you.”

My throat tightened. “But I don’t see anything.”

“Not yet,” she said. “But you feel things, don’t you? Things you can’t explain?”

I nodded slowly.

“It starts like that. Emotion. Intuition. Then dreams. Then… more.”

I didn’t know what to say. My hands trembled slightly under the table.

“I should have told you earlier,” she said. “But I was afraid you’d run straight toward it the way Bran did. And I didn’t want to lose you to this world as well.”

I blinked fast. “You won’t. I just… I need to know who I am. Because whoever they are, these people coming after me, they already do.”

Silence stretched between us, deep and heavy.

Finally, she whispered, “Then it’s time you read the letters.”