His Defiant Little Breeder, His Obsession

Aria's POV The first thing I smelled was smoke. Not the warm, comforting kind that came from firewood crackling in the fireplace on cold nights. This smoke was thick and bitter, like something rotten burning. It clawed its way into my lungs and made my eyes sting even before I opened them. I bolted upright on my straw mattress, coughing hard as gray clouds seeped through the cracks in the wooden walls of my bedroom. My heart pounded against my ribs. "Mother?" I called out, my voice rough from the smoke. No answer. Fear gripped me tight. Something was terribly wrong. I threw off my thin blanket and ran barefoot across the cold wooden floor, yanking open my bedroom door so fast it slammed against the wall. Chaos waited for me outside. Our little village was on fire. Flames roared as they swallowed the rooftops I had known my whole life. Neighbors screamed and ran through the narrow streets, trying to escape. Children cried out for their parents. Wolves howled in panic somewhere in the distance. And bodies... there were bodies lying everywhere in the dirt. "No..." The word slipped out weak and broken. A woman covered in blood stumbled toward me, her eyes wide with terror. She collapsed right at my feet, face down in the dirt. I knew her right away. Mrs. Elloway, the baker who always slipped me an extra warm loaf when Father worked late at the mill. She did not move again. "Mother!" I screamed, my voice cracking as I ran toward our small house. The front door hung crooked on its hinges, like someone had kicked it in. Inside, furniture lay smashed to pieces. Drawers had been ripped open and thrown around. These people had not come for money or food. They had been searching for something... or someone. "For the Moon Goddess' sake," I whispered, my hands shaking. "Mother! Where are you?" I found her in the kitchen. She lay on the floor in a pool of her own blood. The knife she had been using to cut vegetables for breakfast still rested beside her trembling fingers. "Mom..." I dropped to my knees beside her, pressing my hands hard against the deep wound in her stomach. Warm blood soaked through my fingers. "Please, hold on. I'll get help. Just stay with me." Her eyes fluttered open when she heard my voice. "Aria..." "I'm right here," I said quickly, trying to keep my voice steady even though tears burned in my eyes. "Don't try to talk. Save your strength. Everything is going to be okay. I promise I'll fix this." She reached out and grabbed my wrist with surprising strength for someone so hurt. "There isn't... time, my sweet girl." "Stop saying that," I begged, pressing harder on her wound. "You are not leaving me. Not like this." "Listen to me, Aria. Please." Her voice was weak but urgent. "They have found you." Her words made no sense at all. "Who? Who found me?" "They know the truth," she whispered, coughing hard. Fresh blood stained her lips and chin. "Know what? Mother, you're scaring me. What truth?" Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. "You were never really ours. We wanted to tell you someday, when you were older and ready. We loved you so much... like our own daughter from the very first day." The room seemed to spin around me. "What are you saying?" "You were only a tiny baby when we found you in the woods. Your real family... they killed them. The ones who did it are back now. They have come for you." "No." I shook my head, refusing to believe it. "This cannot be true. You are my mother. This is my home." "You have to run, Aria. Now." She reached under her dress with shaking fingers and pulled out the silver moon-shaped pendant she had made me wear every single day since I was little. "Never take this necklace off. It will protect you. Promise me." Footsteps thundered outside. Heavy boots. Dozens of them, getting closer fast. Mother heard them too. Her eyes widened with pure terror. "They are here. Go!" The front door exploded inward with a loud crash of splintering wood. I looked toward the hallway just in time to see four huge men storm inside. They were not ordinary men. Their eyes glowed with that unnatural yellow light, and they moved with the power of werewolves. Each one wore black leather armor marked with a crimson wolf's head emblem I had never seen before. One of them lifted his nose and sniffed the air. His yellow eyes locked straight onto me. "There she is." My blood turned to ice in my veins. The biggest one smiled slowly, showing sharp teeth. "We finally found her. After all this time." Mother shoved me backward with the last bit of strength she had left. "Run, Aria! Run and don't look back!" I did not think. I just ran. I sprinted through the back door as the walls of our house shook behind me from the fight. Someone shouted after me. "Don't kill the girl!" Another man laughed, a cruel sound. "She's worth way more alive. The buyers will be very happy." Worth? Buyers? What were they talking about? Arrows whistled past my head as I darted into the thick forest that bordered our village. Branches whipped across my face and arms, leaving stinging cuts. My lungs burned with every breath, but I kept going. Behind me, I heard the terrifying sounds of wolves shifting and giving chase. They were not rushing. It felt like they were playing with me, herding me exactly where they wanted. I risked one quick glance over my shoulder. At least fifteen of them now. One shifted into a massive black wolf right before my eyes. Then another, and another. They spread out through the trees, surrounding me from all sides. Panic squeezed my throat tight. I pushed myself even harder, ignoring the pain in my legs. My foot caught on an exposed root sticking out of the ground. I fell hard, pain shooting through my twisted ankle. "No..." I gasped, scrambling to get back up. A rough hand wrapped around my long hair and yanked me backward. I cried out in pain. "Got you, little rabbit," the man growled. He towered over me with a nasty scar across his jaw and dead, cold eyes. He looked more like a butcher than a soldier. I clawed at his face with my nails, drawing blood. He laughed at first, but I drove my knee up hard into his groin. His laughter turned into a painful curse as he doubled over. I tore free and ran again. "Stubborn little b***h!" he roared behind me. "You are only making this harder for yourself!" Good. Let him be angry. Angry people make mistakes. I grabbed a thick fallen branch from the ground and swung it with all my strength as another attacker lunged at me. The wood cracked loudly against his face. He staggered back, swearing. I kept running, weaving between trees, fighting every step of the way. Strong arms suddenly slammed around my waist from behind, lifting me off the ground. I kicked wildly, bit down hard on someone's hand until I tasted blood, and headbutted another man in the face. A heavy fist slammed into my ribs. Pain exploded through my whole body, knocking the air out of me. Still, I fought like a wild animal. Because if they wanted to take me, they would have to drag me away remembering exactly how hard I had fought to stay free. A sharp prick pierced the side of my neck. I gasped as the world started to blur around the edges. "No..." My voice came out weak. Poison. It spread fast through my veins. My knees buckled completely. Voices echoed around me as everything grew darker. "Careful with her now. Don't damage the goods." "The buyers will pay double if she has no scars or bruises." "She's even prettier than the description they gave us." "Do you really think she is the one we've been hunting for?" "We will know for sure once we test her blood." The last thing I saw before everything went black was one of the men reaching for the moon pendant around my neck. His fingers touched it, and his face drained of all color. He whispered two words that sent a deeper chill through me than the poison ever could. "She's alive." Then the darkness took me completely.