Threads of the Past

The attic was quiet with only their heavy breathing.

Ariana stared into him, her heart thundering hard in her chest, and he was so close, but the brooding intensity of his gaze seemed to short-circuit the air around her.

The heat of him radiated outward, a protective circle surrounding him but also warning others to stay back, a promise of danger in getting too close, like when you stood on a cliff too near the edge.

"This curse ...,” she began in a voice a little unsteady, “What does it have to do with me? With my family?"

Liam hesitated, a look of clenching his jaw as if wrestling with just how much to tell her. He glanced down at the tightly clutched journal in her hands. "Your mother knew about it," he whispered. "She knew there were forces at play far beyond what you've been told.”

Ariana swallowed as her throat went dry. "Forces like the wolves? Like you?"

Liam's eyes went darker. "Yes. But it's more complicated than that. Your family's bloodline is. unique. It's involved with a power that my kind, and others, have been searching for centuries.”

She stared blankly ahead. Her mind reeled. “Her family's bloodline?” She was thinking now of those weird dreams lately, the acute senses, the growing sense that she was changing in ways she couldn't explain. Was all this because of that?

"What kind of power?" she asked in no louder than a whisper.

Liam exhaled slowly as his face went to stone. "The Moonstone," he said in a low voice. "An ancient artifact that can shift the balance of power between werewolves and. others. Your bloodline is joined within it, you're part of a legacy reaching back generations, to a time when wolves and humans were not at war.”

Ariana's breath hitched in her throat. “The Moonstone.” The word reverberated in her mind, the one she had read in her mother's journal. Her mother had been trying to protect it, protect “her”But why?

"And now it's been lost," Liam continued, the tone ominous. "Stolen by those that would use it to their gain. And if they find out who you are, they'll come for you."

Ariana's chest constricted; a thousand questions swirled in her head. "Who took it?"

Liam didn't answer immediately. The clench of his jaw seemed almost as if he was holding something painful inside. "My stepbrother, Yulian," he said finally. "He has been working with rogues, seeking to overthrow me as Alpha. But that is not all. He is also connected to an older power—something darker.

Ariana's eyes blinked in the wake of trying to wrap her brain around the cataract of information he had just dumped into her lap. Liam's stepbrother? Dark forces? It sounded like some sort of gross fairy tale, but the look in Liam's eyes told her this was all too real.

She took a step back, head shaking. "This is insane," she whispered. "I'm just an art student. I don't have anything to do with werewolves or…or ancient curses.”

"You didn't ask for this," Liam said softly.

"But you're in it now. Your mother tried to keep you out of this world. She knew the danger, but now... now, you are the last link to break the curse."

A swell of panic in her chest heaved, too much to digest, too much to conceptualize. And while her mind screamed for her to deny it, something buried deep inside knew that he spoke the truth. She'd felt it now for weeks, the increasing awareness, the changes within her body. The night of the wolf attack had been her breaking point, and there was no going back.

She clutched the journal tighter, the knuckles white. "What now?" she stammered.

Liam's eyes softened, and for the first time, there was something almost vulnerable within their depths. "I’ll protect you," he said quietly. "Until we can find a way to break the curse, I'll make sure nothing happens to you."

Ariana's belly turned. "And if they find me first?”

Liam leaned in, his presence suffocating as he riveted his eyes to hers. "They won't."

She did want to believe him, yet doubt clawed along the edges of her mind. She knew so little about Liam, after all, and was now supposed to entrust him with her life. Terrifying. The alternative was worse, though, being hunted by those who sought the Moonstone and whatever power it held.

Ariana's eyes fell to the journal clutched in her hands. Her mother had known all along; she was trying to protect her from this fate, and now it was all starting to break down.

"What about my parents?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper. "Were they... involved in this?

Liam's face darkened. "Your mother was. She was a wolf healer, part of this rare bloodline said to be able to heal both wolves and humans. That is why she was targeted."

Ariana's heart pounded. “A wolf-healer?”

Her mother had never said a word about any of this. All her life, she had grown up thinking that her mother was some sort of ordinary woman. Now, it seemed there were layers beneath layers of secrets buried beneath the surface of her family's history.

"My father?" she asked, shaking.

Liam's pause was long before he replied, "Your father…he made a mistake. One which cost your family dearly.

Ariana scowled. "What kind of mistake?"

Liam's eyes hardened. "He betrayed the Blackstone Pack. He gave information to the enemy. That's why your family was hunted."

Suddenly, Ariana's breath seemed jammed in her throat; the implication slammed into her like a punch to the gut. Her father had betrayed the pack? Her family hunted because of it?

She stumbled back, the room spinning. Too much. Too many secrets. Too many lies.

"I need to get out of here," she muttered, shaking.

But just as she was turning toward the door, Liam's hand reached out and closed around her wrist. His grasp wasn't painful, merely firm, and when she lifted her gaze, his eyes were sharp with a mix of things, like concern, like protectiveness, something deeper.

His voice was low, soft, but husky: "You can't run from this. You can't. It will only make it worse."

Ariana swallowed hard, and her pulse began beating a little faster. She wanted to run, to get out of this nightmare but something in Liam's eyes held her back from moving. There was something, some truth in those eyes that didn't let her turn her head away.

"What am I supposed to do?" she whispered, with hardly a word audible.

Liam's face gentled, his fingers loosening on her wrist. "We find the Moonstone," he replied low and evenly. "And we break the curse.”

Ariana's chest constricted as the weight of reality with her new life settled upon her. The curse, the Moonstone, her mother's legacy, all things that seemed insurmountable, yet she had little choice now. The past collided head-on with the present, with no going back.

She nodded, still trying to wrap her mind around it. "Okay," she whispered. "I'll help you.”

Liam's gaze hung on hers a second longer, and in them, she saw relief. He nodded once and stepped back, his face fell into its usual mask of stoicism.

"We start tomorrow," he said softly. "I'll explain all you'd need to know.".

Once more, Ariana watched him disappear into darkness, leaving her in the attic with nothing but the weight of her mother's journal and the secrets it held within its covers. She had gotten herself in so deep.

Whatever was going to come next would definitely have to be faced head-on.