Chapter 4 The Lycan King

Aria's POV

I should run.

Every survival instinct I have screams at me to move. To flee. But my legs won't obey. I'm frozen, staring at this impossible creature that just spoke with a human voice while wearing a wolf's body.

The massive black wolf circles me slowly. Deliberately. Like a predator deciding which part to bite first.

"You're hurt." His voice rumbles through the clearing. "Bleeding. And you reek of fear and silver."

"Stay back." My voice shakes. I hate how weak I sound.

"Or what?" He stops circling, those silver eyes burning into mine. "You'll fight me? You can barely stand."

He's right. My legs are trembling. My vision blurs at the edges. The adrenaline that carried me through the forest is gone, leaving only exhaustion and pain.

"Please." The word slips out. "I just need to rest. I'll leave at first light. I won't bother you."

"Leave?" He laughs, and the sound is wrong coming from a wolf's throat. Dark. Bitter. "Little omega, there is no leaving the Forbidden Lands. The boundary only works one way."

My stomach drops. "What?"

"You can enter. You cannot exit." He sits back on his haunches, tail curling around his paws. "The curse that sealed this place ensures it. Everyone who crosses the boundary is trapped here until they die. Which usually doesn't take long."

"You're lying."

"Am I?" He tilts his head. "Test it then. Walk back the way you came. See how far you get before the barrier throws you back. Before it starts tearing pieces of your soul away for trying to escape."

I think of Marcus standing at the boundary marker. The way he smiled like I'd already died. He knew. They all knew.

"So I'm just supposed to die here?" My voice cracks. "Starve in these ruins?"

"Most do." He stands, and even on four legs he's enormous. Terrifying. "But you won't starve. You'll provide me with answers first."

"I don't have answers. I don't even know what the questions are."

"Then we'll start simple." He takes a step closer. "Why does silver burn you?"

"I don't know."

"Why can you read the ancient script on these stones?"

I blink. "I can't read..."

"Don't lie to me." His voice drops to a growl that vibrates through my bones. "I watched you follow the path. Watched you trace the symbols with your fingers. You read them."

My hands clench into fists. "It was instinct. Following a path. Nothing more."

"Instinct." He moves closer still, so close I can feel heat radiating from his massive body. "Is it instinct that brought you here? To these specific ruins? Or were you called?"

"Called by what?"

"By the same thing that's been sleeping inside you." His eyes narrow. "Tell me your name. Your real name. Not the one your pack gave you."

"Aria Moonstone. That's my only name."

"Moonstone." He goes very still. "Silver Creek bloodline."

"How do you..."

"Your grandmother." His voice changes, softens just slightly. "Celeste. She made it to the boundary once. Stood there screaming warnings into the forest. Screaming about her granddaughter. About keeping you hidden. Keeping you safe."

My throat tightens. "You heard her?"

"Everyone in these lands heard her." He shifts his weight. "She was... persistent. And terrified. She knew what you were even if you didn't."

"Then tell me." Frustration explodes through my exhaustion. "Tell me what I am because I'm so tired of everyone acting like I should know. Like I'm supposed to understand."

"You want the truth?" He moves even closer, and I force myself not to retreat. "You're the reason I've been trapped in this cursed place for two centuries. You're the key to breaking the seal. And you're the mate I've been waiting for since the day I died."

The world tilts.

"That's impossible. I already have a mate. Had a mate. He rejected me hours ago."

"Kade Blackthorn isn't your mate." The wolf's voice is flat. Final. "The bond you felt was artificial. Manufactured by the same dark magic that's been poisoning him. Someone wanted you bound to him. Wanted you distracted, controlled, kept from your real destiny."

"Stop." I press my hands against my temples. "Stop talking in riddles. I don't..."

"You're the reincarnation of the First Queen." He cuts through my denial like a blade. "The Luna who ruled the Seven Kingdoms before they fell. Before I failed to protect you and watched you die in my arms."

"I'm not a queen. I'm nobody. A wolfless omega that nobody wanted."

"You're not wolfless." His tone shifts, becomes almost gentle. "Your wolf is sealed. Has been since before you were born. Your grandmother bound her to protect you from being found. From being hunted. From being used."

The silver light under my skin pulses weakly, as if responding to his words.

"The seal is breaking," he continues. "The stress of rejection, the silver poisoning, the fear. It's all cracking the binding. Soon your wolf will emerge, and when she does..." He pauses. "The entire werewolf world will know exactly what you are. And they'll come for you."

"Let them come." The words surprise me. "I have nothing left to lose."

"You have everything to lose." He stands, and suddenly he's shifting. Bones crack and reform. Fur recedes. The massive wolf disappears, replaced by a man.

A man who takes my breath away.

He's tall, powerfully built, with black hair falling past his shoulders. Those same silver eyes burn in a face too perfect to be real. But it's the scars that catch my attention. A jagged one across his jaw. Smaller ones scattered across his bare chest. Evidence of battles fought and survived.

He's also completely naked, but he doesn't seem to care.

"I'm Draven Nightshade." His voice is different in human form. Deeper. More controlled. "Lycan King of the Shadow Kingdom. The last survivor of the Seven Kingdoms' fall. And whether you believe it or not, you're my fated mate."

"I don't believe in fate anymore."

"You don't have to believe." He reaches out slowly, carefully, like approaching a wounded animal. His finger hovers over the burn on my wrist. "But your body knows the truth. These silver burns? They're your wolf trying to break free. Trying to reach me."

I jerk my hand away. "Don't touch me."

"I wasn't going to." He drops his hand. "Not without permission. I'm not the male who rejected you, Aria. I don't take what isn't freely given."

"Then what do you want from me?"

"I want you to survive." He turns, gesturing to the ruins around us. "This place is dangerous. Filled with creatures that would tear you apart for sport. Shadow wraiths that feed on fear. Rogues who've gone feral from centuries of isolation. You'll be dead by morning if you wander alone."

"So you're offering to protect me? Out of the goodness of your heart?"

"I'm offering a bargain." His eyes meet mine, and I see something ancient and tired in their depths. "I'll keep you alive. Teach you to access your wolf. Show you how to survive here. In exchange, you help me break the curse that's kept me trapped for two hundred years."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I'll watch you die like I've watched countless others die. And I'll add your bones to the collection." He gestures to the ruins. "These stones? They're not just rubble. They're graves."

A cold wind sweeps through the clearing, carrying the scent of decay and old magic.

"Choose quickly, little queen." Draven's voice is soft but urgent. "Because something else just crossed into my territory. Something that's been tracking you since you entered these lands."

I hear it then. A sound like nails scraping stone. Like breathing that rattles with hunger.

Multiple somethings. Coming closer.

"What is that?"

Draven's expression goes hard. "Shadow wraiths. And they've caught your scent." He extends his hand. "So what's it going to be, Aria? Trust the monster you can see? Or face the ones you can't?"

The scraping grows louder. Closer.

I look at his offered hand.

Then at the darkness creeping toward us from all sides.

I take his hand.

His fingers close around mine, and the moment our skin touches, something inside me ignites. Not pain. Not the bond-breaking agony from before.

This is different.

This feels like coming home.

Draven's eyes widen. "You feel it."

"I don't feel anything."

"Liar." He pulls me closer as shadows begin to materialize around us. "But we'll discuss that later. Right now..."

The first wraith lunges from the darkness.

"Run."