Bound by Blood

Ariana hadn't slept much that night. The journal lay open on her bed, its brittle pages softly lit by the warm glow of her bedside lamp. She had read it a million times, her fingers tracing over her mother's handwriting, but each pass through its pages brought more questions.

The Moonstone.

The curse.

The wolves.

And now, Liam.

Everything was leaning against her chest the moment she shut her eyes. Her world was upside down, and she just didn't know how to steady herself. The thing that really terrified her was that her whole life could be built upon secrets-which were now unraveling at a speed faster than she could master.

And when the sun finally showed a little through the curtain, Ariana knew it was time to face it all head-on. Liam had promised her answers, and if she was going to make it through this, well, she needed to understand exactly what kind of danger she was in.

Ariana had thrown on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, padding downstairs. Her grandmother still lay asleep, the house quiet except for the soft murmur of birds chirping in the outside air. She grasped the journal tightly in her clutches and slipped out the front door into the crisp morning air, immediately engulfed upon stepping onto the porch.

She didn't have to look very far for Liam. He was leaning against a tree at the edge of her yard, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes which she had learned to read when he wanted her to, read her with piercing intensity, as though he had been waiting for her.

Ariana stepped closer toward him, her heart beating nervously with fear and curiosity. While she had stopped a few feet away, soon enough, she found herself diving into his eyes in search of some sort of emotion buried deep inside his dark eyes.

"Ready?" Liam asked softly in his low tone.

Ariana nodded, clutching the journal tightly to her chest. "I need answers. All of them.".

Liam studied her for another moment longer, his gaze flicking to the journal clutched in her hands before he nodded. "Come with me."

No other word was spoken; he turned and began to walk toward the woods. Ariana didn't falter but a second before following him. The trees stood sentry, their shadows stretching out in a rectangle across the path. The deeper they walked, the more the air seemed to change, thickening with some strange energy that caused Ariana's skin to prickle.

They walked in total silence. A few miles into the walk, a small clearing appeared, above them, the sun poured through the treetops onto that space, casting a kind of macabre light. In the middle was a big, smooth rock whose surface was rubbed, as if it had served some ancient purpose.

Liam stopped and faced her. His eyes were unreadable. "This is where it all started," he said lowly.

Ariana scrunched her face, and she looked around her. "What do you mean?”

Liam's eyes clouded and he fixed his gaze down to the rock. "This is where the bloodline was cursed. Hundreds of years ago, two families, yours and mine were joined in blood. A pact between wolves and healers. But something went wrong. There was betrayal, Violence and a curse was cast, damning the future generations of both families."

Ariana's heart hitched. "A curse?”

Liam nodded, his jaw muscles working. "The curse was simple, the Alphas of my bloodline would never find peace until the rightful heir of the healer's bloodline which is your bloodline was united with the Moonstone. Without it, every Alpha would succumb to madness or death. And the balance between wolves and humans would be torn apart.

Ariana's breath caught in her throat. "So... that's why my family was targeted?”

"Hmm," Liam said, his voice low. "Your mother knew, tried concealing you, tried protecting you from the wolves that would come after you. She knew as the last of your line, you were the key to breaking the curse."

Ariana swallowed hard as a tidal wave of thoughts waded through her head. “The key. That was it. That was what her mom had written in that journal. But it didn't make any sense. "But why me? I'm just... normal."

Liam's eyes gentled at that, a flicker of something almost like sympathy crossing his features for a rare moment. "You're not normal, Ariana. Not anymore. The curse is tied to your blood, and the moment you reach adulthood, it starts to awaken."

Ariana's chest rises with the swell of panic. "What do you mean, awaken?"

Liam takes another step closer to her, eyes alight with an inner fire. "You've already felt it, haven't you? The dreams, the heightened senses, the changes in your body, your bloodline is powerful, and now that you're of age, that power is starting to surface.”

Ariana remembered all the weird things that had been happening to her, how her senses had heightened, how her body healed in record time compared to how it ever had. She'd written it off to stress or coincidence, but now... well, now it made sense.

"So..what am I supposed to do?" she asked, voice shaking. "Just wait till I turn into some kind of supernatural. thing?"

"No," Liam said, his tone unyielding. "You are not the only one. I will help you learn to control it, but we do have to find the Moonstone. Without it, the curse cannot be broken, and the power in your blood will consume you."

Ariana's stomach twisted. The weight of his words came onto her like a thick blanket, smothering her. "And if we don't find it?”

Liam's face went dark. "Unless we do, the curse will drive you mad. And once that happens... You won't survive."

It was a sucker punch from left field. Her heart screeched to a standstill in her chest. Madness. Death. Too much. She'd never asked for this. She'd never wanted to be a part of some kind of ancient war between wolves and humans. And now, there was no going back.

Ariana's eyes fell to the journal cradled in her hands, her mind reeling with her mother's words. Her mother had tried to protect her, keep her sheltered from this world. Now it was out, and if she did nothing, if she didn't find the Moonstone, the curse would devour her.

Her fingers knitted into the leather binding. "Okay," she whispered low. "Where do we start?"

Liam's eyes went soft then, and in that second alone tension was gone between them. "I've been tracking Yulian for months," Liam said lowly. "He is the one who stole the Moonstone. He can lead us to it if we find him."

Ariana furrowed her brow. "Yulian... your stepbrother, right? Why would he want the Moonstone?”

"Power," Liam growled. "Yulian has always wanted power. He knows that with the Moonstone he will be able to keep the peace between wolves and humans. If he can do that, he can easily take my place as Alpha."

Ariana's heart ran more wildly than any thought she could have ever conjured up in a lifetime, knowing well it was not only her life that hung in the balance but the whole wolf world on the brink of utter destruction.

"We have to hurry," Liam continued. "Yulian has been gathering rogue wolves kicked out of their pack. He is preparing for something huge, and if we don't do anything about it, the curse will be the least of our problems."

Ariana nodded, her head grasping everything he had to tell her. "Then let's go find him."

Liam hedged for a moment, his gaze nailed on hers. "This isn't going to be easy," he warned in a soft tone. "Once we start, there's no turning back."

Ariana met his gaze, the fear standing in her eyes slowly giving way to a growing determination. "I'm not turning back," she stammered stoutly. "Not now. Not ever."

Liam's lips shook with the faintest hint of a smile. "Good."

He turned and commenced walking towards the trees. Ariana wasn't able to follow him immediately because he quickly stopped and turned back to her.

"Stay close," he whispered. "Things are about to get dangerous."

Ariana nodded and followed him right back into the dark shadows of the forest, her heart going into an eccentric spin. With each step further inside, the air seemed to turn a few shades colder, the trees starting to close in with the semblance of a jungle-made trap. Yet, even as fear nibbled at the edges of her mind, a sense of purpose bloomed within her.

Whatever the future held, she didn't know, but of one thing she was certain, she would never face it alone.