Chapter Seven: The Rogue's Test
POV: Aria (Selene Reborn)
The blood between my thighs had barely dried when they came for me.
Two guards. Towering. Fur still clinging to their skin from an incomplete shift. They said nothing, only bowed their heads and gestured to the cloak they carried black velvet, embroidered with silver moons. A ceremonial garb. A warning.
"The Alpha summons you," one rasped.
But it wasn't Lucian.
It was the Council of Elders.
I dressed slowly, deliberately, letting them see the curves Lucian had bitten, the skin he'd knelt for. I wanted them to know I was no caged wolf. No trembling mate. No fragile offering.
I was a storm.
I was the test.
And they were about to fail me.
They led me deep underground.
Below the pack house, through a stone tunnel slick with moss and magic.
The air shifted. Heavier. Thicker. Ancient.
We passed the carcass of a wolf, strung up by its limbs a warning to rogues who defied the moon.
Or perhaps… a promise.
At the end of the tunnel, a chamber yawned open. Circular. Lit by blue fire in sconces that flickered like angry spirits. At its center, a ring of seated elders cloaked in bone-white robes. And in the middle of the circle: a pit.
Carved into the floor like a scar.
Filled with ash, silver chains, and something glowing faintly beneath the surface. Something alive.
"Aria Nightshade," the eldest among them said. His eyes were milked over with blindness, but his voice cut through the air like prophecy. "You claim to be one of us. And yet, the moon trembles in your wake."
I said nothing.
Words were beneath me here.
"Lucian marked you, but your soul was not given freely."
Still, I stayed silent.
"You were born without a pack. A rogue. An orphan. Markless. Magicless. Tainted. And yet…" He leaned forward, sniffed the air like a beast. "There is power in you."
I smiled. Just barely. "You're welcome."
A few of the younger councilmen shifted in their seats. One licked his lips.
The eldest raised his hand. "The old ways demand truth. And truth must be tested."
I looked to the pit.
Of course.
The Rogue's Test.
Naked. Shackled. Exposed to the elements. Locked with a beast a half-maddened wolf bound by bloodlust and pain. If I survived, I was worthy. If I didn't…
Well, the pit would eat well tonight.
They stripped me before I could protest not that I did.
The velvet cloak fell first.
Then the silk.
Then the bones I pretended to wear as pride.
They chained my wrists and ankles in silver cuffs, the metal biting into flesh but unable to break me. The moment I stepped into the pit, the air changed again.
Magic.
Thick, ancient, waiting.
And then the beast was released.
A snarl echoed through the chamber.
The door creaked open.
And it crawled out on bloodied paws.
A feral alpha eyes white with madness, claws dragging, muzzle torn from old fights. Magic leaked from its skin like oil. Its mouth was already frothing. And it was hungry.
For blood.
For flesh.
For submission.
I didn't run.
I waited.
When it lunged, I ducked low letting the chains slide between my thighs and brace my fall. Its claws missed my throat by inches.
I twisted.
Fell into its back.
Wrapped my legs around its ribs.
And bit down.
Hard.
Right behind the ear. Where the magic pulses.
The wolf howled in pain? In recognition?
I didn't care.
I gripped tighter. Ground my hips against it. Let my heat confuse it, drown it in pheromones it couldn't comprehend. I was naked. Bleeding. Chained.
But I was not prey.
I was priestess.
And I would baptize this pit with its surrender.
It fought.
Gods, it fought.
But I was not mortal now.
Selene rose in me like a flood, ancient and full of vengeance.
My hands glowed faintly, the cuffs sparking.
My blood sizzled where it dripped.
I roared not screamed, roared and slammed my forehead into the wolf's snout.
It stumbled.
Whimpered.
Collapsed.
And then belly exposed, tail between its legs it submitted.
To me.
To the moon.
To the truth that I was not rogue.
I was born of the moon's breath and the night's womb.
Silence followed.
Then murmurs.
"She broke it…"
"She… commanded it."
"It submitted."
"She didn't even shift."
I stood, breathing hard, blood and sweat trailing down my body like war paint.
One of the elders stood slowly.
"This… has not happened in two hundred years."
I looked up. My voice low. Reverent. Dangerous.
"It happened tonight."
The chains fell from my wrists on their own.
The pit glowed brighter.
And far above though we were deep underground the moon broke through the ceiling in a single, silver beam.
Right onto my skin.
Right between my breasts.
Marking me.
Not as rogue.
Not as alpha.
Not as prey.
But as Priestess.
When they brought me back to my chambers, I found Lucian already waiting inside.
Pacing.
Breathing hard.
"Where were you?" he growled, barely able to contain the shift in his voice.
"I passed your little test."
His hands clenched into fists. "I didn't authorize"
"I don't need your permission to survive."
He crossed the room, fast and furious, until our bodies collided.
He gripped my jaw, forcing my eyes to his.
"You glow," he whispered, "and it's driving me insane."
I grabbed his belt.
Tore it free.
"I know."
He didn't undress me.
I hadn't bothered redressing after the pit.
He simply shoved me onto the bed, straddled my thighs, and buried his face in my neck, inhaling like I was the last air in the world.
When he entered me, it was not with fury but with reverence.
The bed shook.
The moon watched.
And the pack began to howl.