CHAPTER SIX: THE ROAD TO NIGHTFANG PACK
953 Words
The carriage smelled of old leather and someone else's forgotten journey.Aria pressed her palm against the cold glass and watched Silver Moon disappear, one frozen field at a time. She didn't cry. She had cried enough between the meeting chamber and dawn, sitting on the edge of her bed while the pack house slept.
Now there was only the hollow ache where the bond had been ripped out of her chest. Lina sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders touched. She kept reaching for Aria's hand,
murmuring reassurances that felt rehearsed.
"It's going to be better there. You'll see."
Aria didn't answer.
"Selene was only trying to help. At least this way you're not alone."
Aria turned. Her silver eyes, still red, fixed on Lina.
"You say it like you don’t understand what she is trying to do."
Lina's hand stilled. "I'm just saying she could have left you to the omega quarters. This is better."
Aria looked back out the window. "Yes. You've said that."
A knock on the roof made the driver slowed the carriage. Hoofbeats approached, and Beta Ethan pulled alongside the window on a dark horse.
"We're stopping at the next waypoint. There's water and food."
Lina smiled. "Thank you, Beta."
Ethan ignored her as his gaze stayed on Aria.
"Eat something. You'll need your strength."
She searched his face for judgment or pity but found neither, his face is neutral. His emotions unread.
"I'm not hungry." She replied absentmindedly.
"Eat anyway." He replied without waiting for her reply.
He rode ahead without another word and Lina watched him go.
"He seems decent for a Nightfang wolf." Aria said nothing.
The waypoint was a rough clearing between two ancient roads. A stone well stood at its center, covered in moss. The two carriages had stopped on opposite ends.
Aria stepped out the cold settled into her bones before her feet touched the ground. Her thin cloak was no match for this wind. Across the clearing, the other carriage gleamed, polished black, the Nightfang crest on its doors.
Selene emerged first. Her cloak was lined with white fur. She stretched like a cat who just woke up from its nap, already laughing with the warriors.
Then Kael stepped out behind her.
He surveyed the clearing with cold precision. His grey eyes swept past Aria without stopping. She was less than the frost beneath his boots, and nothing more.The bond-wound pulsed in her chest.
Lina appeared with a piece of bread.
"Eat."Aria took took a piece into her mouth and tasted like ash.
Some minutes after rest they all started the journey again. The road grew rougher and the mountains rose on the horizon like dark teeth biting into the grey sky.
Lina fell asleep. In sleep, her face was unguarded, no careful concern, no soft reassurances. Just the face of the girl Aria had trusted for years.
And yet. The way Lina had said Selene's name. Kept ringing in her ears. The way she had already recovered from the horror of the ceremony.
Aria pressed her hand to her chest, the hollow ache was still there. But beneath it, something stubborn refused to die. Not hope, just the deep bone refusal to let them win. She needs to survive.
The carriage made the last climb on a ridge, and Below them, carved into the valley's black heart, sat Nightfang. Dark stone walls rose from the valley floor. Towers jutted at sharp angles. Torches burned along the outer wall. It was a fortress, Not a home.
Lina woke and leaned toward the window. "It's imposing."
The gates opened. The carriage rolled through. Behind them, the iron doors slammed shut.
The carriage stopped in a stone courtyard lit by torches.Aria stepped out. The air smelled of pine and iron and smoke. Warriors moved in the shadows, no one greeted her, not that she was expecting it tho.
Then she saw Kael near the main entrance, speaking quietly with Ethan. Selene was already at his side, her hand on his arm like it belonged there.
Kael turned. His cold grey eyes found hers across the courtyard.
"She stays in the east wing."
Ethan's expression flickered as if he wanted to say something but was shut out. He just nodded.
Lina's hand tightened on Aria's arm. "The east wing? What's in the east wing?" No one answered.
Kael held her gaze a moment longer. Then he disappeared into the dark corner of the fortress, Selene walking beside him.
Ethan approached, His face was just blank.
"I'll show you to your quarters."
Aria didn't move. "Why the east wing?" She ask.
"It's quiet there."
"That's not what I asked." Ethan met her eyes, the silence stretched.
"The east wing is where we keep the prisoners," he said finally. "Rogues, Traitors, Wolves who were a threat to the pack. The cells are in the lower level, Your room is on the upper floor."
"You're putting her next to prisoners?" Lina’s face went pale.
"The guard posted at the cell block isn't always at his post. And some of the rogues down there have been locked up a long time, long enough to lose their minds."
A cold chill ran down Aria's spine.
"Keep your door locked at night," Ethan said. "Don't wander after dark. And if you hear something in the halls…"
"Do not come out," Aria finished quietly.
Ethan held her gaze, something passed between them, Not kindness, Something closer to respect.
"Welcome to Nightfang," he said. "The Moon Goddess help you."
The torches guttered in a sudden wind.
And somewhere deep beneath the east wing, in cells that hadn't seen daylight in years, the prisoners stirred at the sound of footsteps above them.
- Writer
