Five.
1591 Words
Aria's POV
The words “They know she’s alive” settled over the ruined auction hall like a heavy death sentence.
I stared at the Lycan King. He stared right back at me. For a long moment, the screams, the clashing steel, and the sounds of collapsing tunnels all seemed to fade into the background. It felt like the entire world had narrowed down to just the two of us.
Then his expression hardened again, all business.
“Commander,” he called out, his voice carrying clearly through the chaos.
The soldier beside him immediately straightened up. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Secure every exit. No one leaves this place alive except the prisoners. Make sure of it.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The commander nodded sharply and disappeared back into the smoke and fighting.
Kaelen’s golden eyes returned to me. “We’re leaving. Now.”
The command rubbed me the wrong way, grating against every nerve I had left. “I don’t take orders from you,” I shot back, crossing my arms tightly over my chest.
His face stayed completely calm, but I could feel the power rolling off him. “You do today.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “You sound exactly like the men who dragged me into this nightmare in the first place. All of you think you can just tell people what to do.”
Something dangerous flashed across his face for a second. “I am nothing like them.”
“You all think the same thing,” I said, taking a small step back. “You all believe you can own people, control them, decide their lives for them.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive,” he replied, his voice low and steady.
“I never asked you to,” I answered quickly. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
All around us, his soldiers were gently guiding the frightened women toward the exits. Some of the women cried softly as they held onto each other for support. Others looked like they might collapse from pure exhaustion at any moment. The little girl Kaelen had saved earlier was now wrapped in a warm blanket, but her tiny hands still trembled as she clutched it close.
I should have felt relieved seeing them being helped. Instead, my pulse only beat faster. Freedom was so close I could almost taste it. But every instinct inside me screamed that accepting help from this king would mean trading one prison for another.
“I’ll leave on my own,” I told him firmly.
“You won’t make it ten miles out there,” he said.
“I’ll take my chances.”
“The Crimson Market has buyers and spies in every kingdom,” he warned. “They won’t stop looking for you.”
“I don’t care,” I snapped.
“They will hunt you down.”
“I said I don’t care!” My voice echoed loudly through the ruined hall, surprising even me.
Kaelen took one slow, deliberate step closer. “You should care. This isn’t something you can run from forever.”
His calmness made me even angrier than if he had shouted. “I survived just fine before you showed up.”
“You survived because they wanted to sell you for a high price,” he said plainly. The truth of his words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. He continued, “Next time, they’ll know exactly what you are. Things will be different.”
“What am I, then?” I demanded, my voice rising. “If you know so much, tell me.”
Silence stretched between us. His jaw tightened visibly.
“You don’t know either, do you?” I pressed.
“If you know something, then tell me right now.”
He looked away for a moment. “Not here. This isn’t the place.”
My patience finally snapped. “You don’t get to keep secrets about my own life! Who do you think you are?”
Before he could answer, another soldier came sprinting toward us. “My King!”
“What now?” Kaelen asked, turning slightly.
“The eastern vault, sire. We found records there.”
Kaelen frowned. “What kind of records?”
The soldier swallowed hard. “Every Luna Vitae ever captured… every single one of them.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Kaelen’s face grew even darker. “And?”
“They’re all marked as deceased,” the soldier said quietly.
My stomach lurched violently. Every one of them? Every woman who shared my bloodline… dead? No. There had to be others. There had to be survivors somewhere.
The soldier kept going, his voice low. “Except for one.”
His eyes shifted directly toward me.
My skin went ice cold. I was the last one. The very last of my kind.
The realization hit me so hard that my knees nearly gave out. My entire bloodline… gone. Not just lost, but erased.
Kaelen noticed how unsteady I had become. He reached out instinctively to steady me.
“Don’t touch me,” I said sharply, slapping his hand away.
His fingers curled into a tight fist before he lowered it back to his side. For just a brief moment, something that looked almost like regret crossed his face.
Before either of us could say another word, a deafening horn blast echoed through the underground chambers. Every Lycan soldier froze in place.
One of the commanders shouted from across the hall. “Enemy reinforcements incoming!”
The floor started to tremble beneath our feet. Heavy footsteps thundered through the tunnels—dozens, then hundreds.
“They’re sealing the exits!” another soldier yelled in warning.
Kaelen drew his sword in one smooth motion. “Form defensive lines! Protect the prisoners at all costs.”
His warriors moved instantly, their discipline almost frightening to watch.
I glanced toward the nearest passage. If they were distracted by the fight, maybe I could slip away. I slowly started backing up. One step. Then another. No one seemed to notice. Good.
I turned and ran as fast as I could, ignoring the pain in my bruised ribs and the pounding in my head. The fresh air had to be close. It had to be.
Behind me, someone shouted, “She’s running!”
I pushed harder, feet slapping against the stone floor. I rounded a sharp corner—
—and slammed straight into a solid wall of muscle and armor.
Except it wasn’t a wall. It moved.
Large hands caught my shoulders before I could fall.
I looked up. Kaelen.
His chest rose and fell steadily. He wasn’t even breathing hard. How had he gotten in front of me so quickly?
“I told you,” he said, that infuriatingly calm voice wrapping around me again. “You wouldn’t make it far.”
I shoved against his chest with every bit of strength I had left. He didn’t move an inch. “I’m not going with you.”
“You are,” he replied simply.
“No.”
“I don’t have time to argue about this right now.”
“Then stop trying to kidnap me!” The word “kidnap” hung heavy in the air between us.
Several nearby soldiers quickly looked away, pretending they hadn’t heard.
Kaelen’s golden eyes never left mine. “If I wanted to kidnap you,” he said, his voice dropping lower, “you wouldn’t still be standing here arguing with me.”
Heat rushed up to my face. I hated that he was right. I hated him even more for saying it out loud like that.
Before I could come up with a reply, an arrow whistled through the air right past us. Kaelen moved faster than I could think. He pulled me tight against his chest as the arrow slammed into the stone wall where I had been standing a second earlier.
More arrows followed in a deadly rain.
His heavy cloak wrapped around me as he turned his body, shielding me completely. The movement was so sudden that I found myself pressed flush against him. I could smell cedar, smoke, and steel on him. For a split second, I felt his heartbeat thundering strong and steady beneath my ear.
Then he eased back just enough to look down at me. “Are you hurt?”
I opened my mouth to snap at him again, but the words died when I realized something. Every arrow had hit him instead of me. His black cloak hid most of it, but one arrow stuck out from the armor on his shoulder. Blood trickled slowly down his arm.
He hadn’t even flinched.
“My King!” a commander shouted urgently. “We have to move now!”
Kaelen broke our gaze and yanked the arrow free without a single sound of pain. “Fall back! Keep the formation tight!”
His soldiers closed ranks around us immediately. The surviving prisoners were hurried into the protected center of the group.
Before I could try to run again, Kaelen looked directly at me, his voice quiet enough that only I could hear. “I will not chain you. But I swear on my crown… I am getting you out of this place alive.”
For the first time since I had met him, I wasn’t sure whether I should believe him.
And that frightened me more than the arrows or the approaching enemy.
- Writer
