CHAPTER 10: THE RITE OF BLOOD AND STORM
1441 Words
The night after Morwen’s revelation didn’t feel like night at all.
It felt like waiting.
Like the entire Silver Crescent Pack had been placed inside a glass cage, and something enormous was circling outside it, deciding where to strike first.
Selene Ravencrest stood alone on the balcony of the pack house, her arms crossed, the wind tugging at her dark hair.
Below her, warriors moved with unusual discipline—too disciplined. No laughter. No gossip. No casual shifts of armor or weapons.
Fear made everything orderly.
Behind her, footsteps approached.
She didn’t turn.
“I said I wanted to be alone.”
A pause.
Then the voice she expected.
Kael Draven.
“I know,” he said quietly. “But I don’t listen well when my son is involved.”
Selene’s jaw tightened slightly.
That word—son—still landed differently every time he said it.
Kael stepped beside her, leaning on the railing but not touching her.
For once, he didn’t try to dominate the space.
He just… stood there.
“Morwen is moving the elders,” he said.
Selene finally looked at him.
“So it begins.”
Kael nodded.
“They’re calling for an emergency assembly.”
Her expression didn’t change.
“And?”
“And they want Elias presented.”
The wind shifted.
Selene’s eyes sharpened instantly.
“No.”
Kael met her gaze.
“I didn’t agree to it.”
A pause.
Then softer:
“But I can’t stop them from trying.”
Selene turned fully toward him now.
“That child is not a political object.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it.”
Kael flinched slightly at that.
Not because it was unfair.
Because it wasn’t.
A silence stretched between them.
Then Kael spoke again, voice lower.
“I’ve been thinking about what Morwen said.”
Selene let out a humorless breath.
“That’s dangerous.”
A faint flicker of something—almost a smile—touched Kael’s lips.
“Funny.”
Then it faded.
“I don’t care about the throne,” he said. “I care about him.”
His gaze dropped slightly, toward where Elias was sleeping inside.
Selene followed his eyes for a second.
Then looked away.
“That’s what everyone says before they turn him into a weapon.”
Kael’s jaw clenched.
“I won’t let that happen.”
“You didn’t exactly stop it before.”
The words hit like a slap.
Kael didn’t deny them.
He couldn’t.
Instead, he leaned forward slightly.
“Tell me what you want.”
Selene’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s not how this works.”
“Then how does it work?”
A pause.
Then she said quietly:
“I take my son and disappear.”
Kael went still.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one that guarantees his safety.”
Kael’s voice dropped.
“And what about you?”
Selene’s expression hardened.
“I survived worse than you.”
That stung more than she intended.
She saw it in his face.
But Kael didn’t step back.
Instead, he exhaled slowly.
“You don’t trust me.”
“No.”
A beat.
“Not anymore.”
Silence.
From the hallway behind them, another presence arrived without announcement.
Cold.
Controlled.
Deadly.
Lucien Varkos.
He didn’t look at Kael first.
He looked at Selene.
“They’ve started gathering armies,” he said simply.
Kael straightened instantly.
“Which ones?”
Lucien’s eyes flicked toward him at last.
“All of them.”
That single answer changed the air.
Selene turned slowly.
“Explain.”
Lucien stepped closer, stopping just out of reach.
“The Lycans see the prophecy as a conquest opportunity. The wolf packs see it as a threat. The elders see it as control.”
His gaze sharpened slightly.
“And I see it as a mess that will destroy everything if it isn’t handled correctly.”
Kael growled low.
“You started this by bringing her here.”
Lucien didn’t react.
“She was already part of it. You just didn’t know.”
Kael took a step forward—
—but Selene raised a hand again.
Instant silence.
Always instant.
She had that effect now.
“Enough.”
Both men stopped.
Selene’s voice was quiet, but something in it had changed again.
“I don’t care who started what.”
A pause.
“I care about what happens to my son tomorrow.”
Lucien’s gaze softened slightly.
Kael’s hardened.
“I have a solution,” Kael said.
Selene turned to him slowly.
“Of course you do.”
He ignored the sarcasm.
“The elders want a presentation.”
Selene’s eyes narrowed.
“And?”
Kael met her gaze.
“Then we give them one.”
Lucien’s expression darkened instantly.
“That’s exactly what Morwen wants.”
Kael nodded.
“I know.”
Selene studied him carefully.
“You’re suggesting we walk into a trap.”
Kael didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
A beat.
Silence stretched again.
Then Kael added:
“But we control the trap.”
Lucien let out a low laugh.
“That’s bold. Even for you.”
Kael didn’t look at him.
“This isn’t about pride.”
Selene folded her arms.
“Then what is it about?”
Kael’s eyes lifted to hers.
“Protecting him.”
A long pause.
Then Selene spoke.
“And you think standing in front of elders will do that?”
Kael shook his head slightly.
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“But it will show them something they’ve forgotten.”
Selene’s gaze sharpened.
“And what’s that?”
Kael’s wolf stirred behind his eyes.
“That the heir is not unclaimed.”
A silence.
Then—
Selene understood.
Her breath slowed slightly.
“You want to claim him publicly.”
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
“That would bind him politically.”
Kael nodded.
“And spiritually.”
Selene’s expression tightened.
“That’s dangerous.”
Kael stepped closer now.
“Everything about him is dangerous.”
A pause.
Then softer:
“And they already know it.”
Selene looked down at the sleeping house again.
At Elias.
Small.
Unaware.
Too powerful for his age.
Too important for his safety.
She closed her eyes briefly.
When she opened them again, something had shifted.
“Public claiming means binding him to both bloodlines,” she said slowly.
Kael nodded.
Lucien added quietly:
“It also means exposing him fully.”
Selene turned back to them.
“Which makes him a target.”
Silence.
Kael spoke first.
“They will target him either way.”
That truth landed heavy.
Selene exhaled slowly.
Then:
“And if we do nothing?”
Lucien answered this time.
“They take him anyway.”
A pause.
Selene looked between them.
Two powerful men.
Two enemies.
Both tied to her son in different ways.
And both right.
That was the problem.
She stepped back slightly.
“I need time.”
Kael shook his head.
“We don’t have it.”
Selene’s eyes flashed.
“I didn’t ask for permission.”
A beat.
The air tightened again.
Then Lucien spoke softly.
“Morwen is moving tonight.”
Selene froze slightly.
Kael’s expression darkened.
“You’re sure?”
Lucien nodded once.
“They’re preparing the assembly ritual without us.”
Selene looked toward the hall where Elias slept again.
Then back at them.
Something in her gaze shifted.
Decision forming.
Cold.
Final.
“Then we don’t wait for their assembly.”
Kael frowned.
“What are you saying?”
Selene turned fully toward both of them.
Her voice dropped.
“We hold our own.”
Silence.
Kael blinked.
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
Selene continued.
“And we don’t present him as a prize.”
A pause.
“We present him as what he is.”
Kael’s voice was quiet.
“And what is that?”
Selene’s eyes lifted.
Moonlight caught in them.
“The beginning of everything they feared.”
A long silence followed.
Then, from inside the house—
A small voice.
“Mommy?”
Elias stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
All three adults turned.
The boy blinked at them.
“Why does everyone look like something bad is coming?”
Selene’s expression softened instantly.
She walked to him and crouched.
“Because it is.”
Elias frowned slightly.
“Can I stop it?”
A pause.
Selene hesitated.
Then she smiled faintly.
“No.”
She brushed his hair back.
“But you can survive it.”
Behind her, Kael and Lucien exchanged a look.
Not agreement.
Not trust.
Something closer to inevitability.
Because whatever came next…
was already in motion.
- Writer
