Chapter 1- Rejected
Three years ago, Kael Blackthorn rejected me.
Today, he came back.
And the moment he saw me, he looked afraid.
I didn't understand why.
At the time, I didn't know that the answer would lead me to my father's death, a secret buried beneath our pack, and a power that had been missing for generations.
I only knew that Kael Blackthorn had returned.
And everyone was acting as though his return meant something terrible was about to happen.
The first sign was the silence.
Blackthorn Pack was never quiet.
Not during the morning.
Not when the Alpha's convoy arrived.
And certainly not when half the pack had gathered in the courtyard to welcome the man who had been absent for three years.
Yet when the first black SUV passed through the gates, every conversation stopped.
I stood near the back of the crowd with Lena beside me, watching the vehicles roll toward the main house.
"Don't stare," Lena whispered.
"I'm not staring."
"You've been staring for the last thirty seconds."
"I haven't."
She gave me a look.
I folded my arms.
"Fine. Maybe I am."
Lena sighed.
"Aria, please."
There was something strange in her voice.
Not annoyance.
Fear.
I turned toward her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Lena."
She looked away.
"Just stay away from him."
I frowned.
"Why?"
She didn't answer.
Before I could ask again, the first SUV stopped.
The rear door opened.
A man stepped out.
The courtyard became even quieter.
Kael.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
Three years.
Three years since I had seen him.
The last time I saw him, he had stood beneath the old oak tree behind the training grounds.
He had been eighteen then.
I had been fifteen.
And I had believed that whatever existed between us would eventually have a name.
I had been wrong.
His eyes had been different that night.
Cold.
Empty.
He had looked directly at me and said the words I had spent years trying to forget.
"There is nothing between us."
Then he walked away.
Now he stood across the courtyard, older and harder.
He had grown taller. His shoulders were broader. His dark hair was pushed away from his face, and the black Alpha coat around his shoulders made him look almost nothing like the boy I remembered.
But his eyes hadn't changed.
Dark.
Intense.
Unusually watchful.
And when those eyes found mine, something happened.
He stopped walking.
His expression changed.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
Shock.
Then recognition.
Then something I couldn't identify.
Fear.
Kael Blackthorn was afraid.
Of me.
His eyes moved over my face as though he were searching for something.
Then he looked at my neck.
My hands immediately went to my collar.
There was nothing there.
At least, nothing I knew about.
Kael's jaw tightened.
"Aria."
My name sounded strange coming from him.
I lifted my chin.
"Alpha Kael."
Something flickered in his expression.
He didn't like the title.
He walked toward me.
The crowd parted.
Lena stepped closer to my side.
Kael stopped a few feet away.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he said quietly, "You shouldn't be here."
I almost laughed.
"This is my home."
"You need to leave."
My smile disappeared.
"What?"
"Leave Blackthorn territory before sunset."
I stared at him.
After three years, that was the first thing he wanted to say to me?
"Why?"
His eyes moved toward the people watching us.
"Not here."
"Then where?"
"Aria."
His voice carried a warning.
I stepped closer.
"You rejected me three years ago. You disappeared. Now you come back and tell me to leave my own home?"
His expression hardened.
"I didn't come back for you."
The words hurt more than they should have.
But something in his eyes contradicted them.
I looked at him carefully.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
His expression changed.
Before he could answer, someone behind him spoke.
"Because he knows what you are."
Kael turned sharply.
A stranger stood near the convoy.
He was perhaps in his forties, dressed in a dark gray coat.
He wasn't looking at Kael.
He was looking at me.
His face had lost all its color.
He took one step forward.
Then stopped.
"No," he whispered.
Kael's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Varek."
The stranger looked at him.
"You said she was gone."
A murmur spread through the crowd.
Kael's face hardened.
"Not here."
Varek ignored him.
His eyes remained fixed on me.
"She looks exactly like—"
"Enough."
Kael moved between us.
The stranger immediately stopped talking.
I looked from one man to the other.
"Like who?"
Neither answered.
My heartbeat quickened.
"Who does she look like?"
Varek looked frightened.
Kael looked furious.
And Lena suddenly grabbed my wrist.
"Aria, let's go."
I pulled away.
"No."
Lena stared at me.
"Please."
That word stopped me.
Lena almost never begged.
I looked at her.
"What do you know?"
She froze.
"Nothing."
"You've been acting strange since they arrived."
"I haven't."
"You told me not to look at Kael. You told me to leave. And now that man recognized me."
Lena's lips parted.
For a second, I thought she would finally tell me.
Instead, she whispered:
"I can't."
"Can't what?"
"Tell you."
"Why?"
Her eyes moved toward Kael.
Then toward the forest.
"It's not safe."
A chill ran through me.
Before I could question her again, Kael spoke.
"Aria."
I turned.
He was watching me.
There was something desperate in his expression now.
"I need you to trust me."
I almost laughed.
"Trust you?"
"I know what you're thinking."
"No, you don't."
"I know more than you think."
"Then tell me."
He didn't.
I stepped closer.
"Why did you reject me?"
His eyes lowered for a moment.
When he looked back at me, the anger was gone.
Only exhaustion remained.
"I never rejected you because I didn't want you."
My chest tightened.
"Then why?"
His voice dropped.
"Because the moment they discovered you were my mate, they would kill you."
The courtyard disappeared.
For a moment, I heard nothing.
"What?"
Kael looked around.
"Keep your voice down."
"Who would kill me?"
He didn't answer.
"The Council?"
His silence was enough.
My stomach twisted.
The Moon Council.
The oldest governing body among the werewolf packs.
They had existed long before Blackthorn Pack.
They were supposed to protect the laws.
They were supposed to protect us.
So why would they want me dead?
"I've never even met them."
"That's the point."
Kael stepped closer.
"You were never supposed to know they were looking for you."
"Why?"
His eyes locked onto mine.
"Because you aren't an ordinary werewolf."
A strange sensation passed through me.
"What does that mean?"
Kael's expression changed.
Before he could answer, a loud crack echoed across the courtyard.
Everyone turned.
The sound had come from the main gates.
One of the guards shouted.
"Alpha!"
Kael immediately moved toward the entrance.
I followed.
The crowd gathered behind us.
Something had been carved into the wooden gate.
Three words.
SHE HAS RETURNED.
Nobody spoke.
I stared at the message.
"Who is she?" someone whispered.
Another person answered.
"I don't know."
Kael did.
I knew he did.
His face had become completely expressionless.
"Who wrote that?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
"Kael."
Still nothing.
I stepped closer to the carving.
The symbol beneath the words caught my attention.
A crescent moon surrounded by three lines.
My stomach dropped.
I had seen it before.
Years ago.
Inside my father's study.
I remembered the night clearly.
I had been twelve.
My father had been packing a bag.
He had looked frightened.
When I asked where he was going, he told me not to worry.
Then he noticed the necklace I was wearing.
He had ripped it from my neck.
He told me never to show it to anyone.
The same symbol had been engraved on it.
I looked at Kael.
"You know that symbol."
His eyes met mine.
"Yes."
"Where have I seen it?"
He didn't answer.
"Where?"
A voice came from the crowd.
"The Moon Council."
Everyone turned.
An elderly pack member had spoken.
The color drained from his face.
Kael immediately ordered, "Everyone inside."
Nobody moved.
"Now."
The command in his Alpha voice finally broke the crowd apart.
People began leaving.
Lena remained beside me.
Kael looked at her.
"Lena."
She flinched.
"Yes, Alpha?"
"Take Aria home."
Lena nodded.
I looked at her.
"Why are you afraid of him?"
"I'm not."
"You are."
She grabbed my arm.
"Aria, please."
I pulled away.
"What happened to my father?"
The question changed everything.
Lena froze.
Kael looked at her.
I saw it.
That tiny movement.
That exchange between them.
They knew something.
Something about my father.
"You know," I whispered.
Lena shook her head.
"No."
"You do."
"I don't."
"Then look me in the eyes and say it."
She couldn't.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I'm sorry."
Then she walked away.
I stood there, stunned.
Kael watched her leave.
"What happened to my father?"
He didn't answer.
"Was he killed?"
His jaw tightened.
"Aria—"
"Was he?"
Silence.
That was my answer.
My father's disappearance had never made sense.
For years, my mother had told me that he died somewhere beyond our territory.
No body.
No funeral.
No explanation.
Just a story everyone accepted because nobody wanted to challenge it.
But Kael knew.
Lena knew.
And suddenly I wasn't sure my father had simply disappeared.
I turned toward Kael.
"Who killed him?"
His eyes darkened.
"The same people who are looking for you."
"The Council?"
He said nothing.
"Why?"
"Because your father discovered something he shouldn't have."
"What?"
Kael looked toward the forest.
"The truth about your family."
I felt a strange pressure behind my eyes.
"What truth?"
He stepped closer.
"You are the last descendant of the first Alpha."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"The first Alpha wasn't just the founder of the old packs."
Kael lowered his voice.
"He possessed an ability that hasn't appeared in hundreds of years."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
"That's what they want everyone to believe."
I looked down at my hands.
Nothing.
No power.
No strange ability.
I'd spent most of my life being considered one of the weakest wolves in the pack.
I could barely keep up during training.
My wolf had never shown any unusual strength.
Sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong with me.
Kael seemed to read the thought on my face.
"They made you believe you were powerless."
"Who?"
"People who needed you to stay hidden."
"Why?"
"Because if the Council discovers what you really are, they'll come for you."
A sudden pain shot through my head.
I staggered.
Kael caught my arm.
For one second, something inside me awakened.
A sound.
Not outside.
Inside my mind.
A low growl.
My breath caught.
Kael felt it too.
His eyes widened.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
He released my arm.
His face had gone pale.
"Nothing."
I stared at him.
He was lying.
Again.
Then something moved in the forest.
Kael immediately turned.
The trees were still.
But I could feel someone watching us.
Or something.
A distant howl echoed through the darkness.
Kael's expression changed.
"Get inside."
"Why?"
"Now."
I didn't move.
"Aria!"
His voice carried enough power to make everyone nearby stop.
I stepped backward.
Then I saw something between the trees.
A pair of pale eyes.
Watching me.
I blinked.
They disappeared.
"Kael..."
He had already seen them.
He stepped in front of me.
"Run."
The command came out almost as a whisper.
Then another howl answered from deeper in the forest.
And another.
They weren't alone.
I turned toward the pack house.
Before I could take a step, something struck the gate.
The entire wooden structure shook.
People screamed.
Kael's wolf emerged in his eyes.
"Inside!"
The guards rushed forward.
I ran.
But halfway across the courtyard, I stopped.
Something had fallen from the gate.
A small silver pendant.
I picked it up.
My hands began trembling.
I knew that pendant.
My father had worn it every day before he disappeared.
The same crescent.
The same three lines.
And carved into the back were four words.
THE BLOODLINE NEVER DIED.
I looked up.
Kael was staring at the pendant.
His expression told me everything.
He knew what it meant.
And whatever secret my father had died protecting...
It was no longer a secret.
Someone had come back for me.
And deep inside my chest, the strange voice returned.
This time, I understood one word.
Run.
