CHAPTER EIGHT – "THE ALPHA'S COMMAND"
The moment the doors of the council chamber slammed shut behind Declan and me, the silence felt suffocating. Not peaceful—never peaceful with him—but tight, charged, buzzing like static clinging to my skin.
I didn't look at him.
I didn't want to.
Declan stepping forward in front of the entire ceremonial court and declaring that I would not be leaving this pack for six months, invoking ancient succession law—my blood was still boiling.
"You blindsided me," I said, crossing my arms tightly as I stared at the long table in the council chamber instead of his face. "In front of hundreds of wolves. You knew exactly what you were doing."
Declan didn't respond right away. He stood there, tall and immovable, like a storm cloud deciding whether to break open. His scent—cedar and winterwind—crept around me despite my best efforts to ignore it.
"It wasn't a choice," he finally said. "It was a duty."
I laughed once, sharp and cold. "Your duty is not me."
"It is now."
I flinched.
He heard it. Of course he did.
His voice lowered, roughened. "I told you, Aria—once the moon chose you, you stopped being optional."
"Stop calling it that," I snapped. "Stop acting like this… bond… is the beginning and end of the world."
"It is," Declan said simply.
I whipped around, ready to slap the arrogance off his face, but the look in his eyes froze me.
Not possessive.
Not cruel.
Haunted.
Like he was standing on a cliff's edge and every second was a battle not to fall.
"What aren't you telling me?" I demanded.
His jaw ticked. "Nothing that concerns you."
"Everything concerns me." I stepped closer despite myself. "Because you made it that way—by dragging me into this pack's politics."
"You were born into this pack's politics."
The words hit my chest like a blow even though I didn't yet understand them.
Before I could ask, the door burst open and Raven slipped inside, eyes sharp as obsidian and hair wind-tossed, like she'd run the entire way here.
"Good, you're both alive," she muttered. "Wonderful. I wasn't sure when I saw the council evacuate like you were detonating a bomb."
Declan exhaled a low growl. "Raven. I didn't summon you."
"Fantastic," she shot back. "I didn't ask for your permission."
Her gaze flicked to mine. Something in it tightened—sympathy? Warning?
She jerked her chin toward the far wall. "Aria, can I talk to you alone? Like, without Captain Brood hovering?"
Declan stepped between us before I could answer.
"No."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Of course. The great Alpha-to-be wants to keep the girl he publicly claimed as his mate locked two feet from his side. We get it, Declan. You're territorial. Congratulations."
"I'm protective," he said, voice dangerously calm. "Which is more than I can say for you."
Raven stiffened. For a moment I saw something raw flash across her face—hurt? guilt?—before she covered it with her trademark razor grin.
"Well," she said lightly, "at least the rumors are true. You still bite."
"And you still provoke." Declan stepped closer. "Say your piece and leave."
Raven lifted both hands. "Fine. I came to warn Aria."
My heartbeat kicked.
"Warn me about what?"
Raven's eyes slid to Declan, then back to me. "About the attack that's coming."
The room erupted.
Declan's power surged like a physical thing—cold, sharp, dominant. "You told no one of this threat."
"Because I only learned about it an hour ago." Raven's smirk vanished. "Three rogues were spotted near the southern ridge border. They were moving in formation."
"Rogues don't move in formation," Declan growled.
"Exactly."
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
She turned to me, her expression softening. "Aria… they weren't sniffing for territory. They were sniffing for someone."
My stomach dropped. "Who?"
"You."
The air vanished.
For a second the world tunneled—Raven's face blurring, Declan's body blurring—until the only thing I could hear was my own pulse thundering.
"They want you," Raven repeated quietly. "And they're getting closer."
Declan didn't speak. Didn't breathe. Didn't blink.
Then—
"Get out," he said to Raven.
"No," she said.
"Get. Out."
Raven's eyes narrowed. "You don't get to order me around when this concerns her."
"It concerns the entire pack," Declan snapped.
"It concerns your mate," she fired back.
The word slammed into the room like lightning.
Heat crawled up my neck. I wanted to run. Hide. Scream. Something.
Declan's chest rose sharply, as if hearing someone else say the word made it too real.
Raven stepped in front of me, shoulders tense. "You can glare at me all you want, Storm. But I need Aria safe, and if you think I'm letting you handle that alone—"
"You're not protecting her," Declan cut in. "I am."
"She doesn't. Want. You," Raven hissed through her teeth.
Silence dropped dead.
Declan's jaw flexed once, twice.
Then he said the last thing I expected.
"That doesn't matter."
My heart stuttered.
"Declan—" I began, but he waved a hand, voice low and iron-hard.
"Her feelings don't change the law. Don't change the threat. Don't change the prophecy you and I both know is real."
Raven froze.
"What prophecy?" I whispered.
The air in the room turned to ice.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them looked at me.
"You two know something," I said, heat rising in my throat. "Something involving me."
Raven inhaled shakily. "Aria, now isn't—"
"Tell me."
Declan turned his head away, silver eyes stormy.
Raven pressed her lips together. "There's a rumor—an old one—about the bloodline capable of restoring or destroying the Blackwood throne. A bloodline tied to—"
"Raven," Declan warned.
"No." She pushed past him and grabbed my hands. "Aria, listen. Your mother—"
That was when the door burst open again, slamming into the wall.
This time it wasn't Raven.
It was Elena.
Her eyes landed on me first—always me—and I saw pure, frantic fear there, as if she had sprinted straight from the main house.
"No one speaks to her about the bloodline!" Elena snapped. "Not one word!"
Raven stepped back, shocked.
Declan swore under his breath.
I stared at my mother, heart pounding. "The bloodline? What bloodline? What the hell is going on?"
Elena's chest rose and fell too fast. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
"Clearly it is."
"No," she said sharply, "it isn't. And you will not question me further."
Declan scoffed. "She's not a child."
But Elena turned on him with a fury I'd never seen. "You stay out of this. You've done enough by claiming her in front of the entire pack like some trophy."
Something ugly flickered behind Declan's eyes.
Trophy.
The word set every nerve in my body alight.
"I'm nobody's trophy," I said, voice low.
Elena whipped toward me. "Then stop acting like one. Stop letting him pull you into a role you were never meant to fill."
"What role?"
She hesitated.
Declan stiffened.
Raven held her breath.
Three seconds stretched like a rope about to snap—
And then Elena said the words that sent my stomach plummeting:
"You were never meant to stand beside an Alpha."
The room spun.
"Mother…" I whispered. "Why?"
Elena's lips trembled. "Because it puts you in danger."
"From who?" I stepped forward. "The rogues? The pack? From Declan?"
Elena's eyes flicked to him, full of old bitterness.
"Yes," she said. "From all of them."
Declan snarled. "You don't get to speak for my intentions—"
"My daughter's life is more important than any throne you're trying to secure," Elena hissed.
"I don't care about the damn throne!" Declan roared, the entire chamber vibrating with the force of it.
He hadn't meant to shout.
He'd lost control.
That terrified him more than it terrified me.
Raven muttered, "Well, that's new."
Declan's breathing turned ragged. He ran a hand through his hair. "Aria… I never wanted this to happen like—"
The warning horn sounded.
All four of us froze.
One single, piercing blast.
The signal for a breach.
A rogue breach.
Raven swore viciously. "They're here."
Declan turned to me, eyes blazing with command and fear and something sharper—something almost tender.
"Aria," he said, stepping toward me. "You stay with me."
"Why—"
"Because they're not here for the pack." His voice dropped to a growl. "They're here for you."
I barely had time to inhale before he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door.
Raven raced beside us.
Elena called after me, voice breaking.
"Aria, don't let him take you—!"
But Declan di dn't slow.
And I didn't stop him.
Because deep in my gut, buried beneath the panic, a single truth crystallized:
Whoever those rogues were…
Whatever they wanted…
I could feel it—
They weren't coming to kill me.
They were coming to claim me.
And that was somehow worse.
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