Blood on the Council Floor

Chapter Eight

Blood on the Council Floor

“The council is dead.”

The words slammed into Ariana hard enough to steal her breath.

Martha stood immediately. “What?”

Kael’s expression remained cold, but tension radiated from him heavily.

“All five members.”

Ariana stared at him in horror. “How?”

“We don’t know yet.”

But the look in his eyes said otherwise.

He had a suspicion.

And Ariana already knew what it was.

“No,” she whispered. “You think it’s connected to me again.”

Kael didn’t answer immediately.

“That’s becoming difficult to ignore.”

Anger flashed through her chest despite the fear.

“People keep dying around me and somehow I’m the problem?”

Kael stepped closer.

“You are the center of it.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m causing it!”

“No,” he admitted quietly. “But someone is moving because of you.”

Silence followed.

The storm outside had grown worse again, thunder shaking the estate walls.

Martha looked between them nervously.

“You shouldn’t go tonight.”

Kael ignored her.

“Ariana. Now.”

Something in his voice made her follow without arguing further.

---

The council chambers looked different at night.

They look darker.

Blood covered the stone floors.

Ariana stopped walking the moment she entered.

Her stomach twisted violently.

Bodies lay scattered across the chamber in torn ceremonial robes while guards searched the area carefully.

The smell alone nearly made her sick.

Kael watched her closely.

“You don’t have to look.”

But Ariana forced herself forward anyway.

Because somehow this nightmare kept leading back to her.

And she needed to understand why.

Ronan approached quietly from across the room.

“There’s no sign of forced entry.”

Kael frowned. “So they knew their killer?”

“Looks that way.”

Ariana looked toward the center of the chamber.

The female council member from earlier lay against the throne steps, blood covering her silver robes.

Her eyes remained open.

Frozen in fear.

Ariana swallowed hard.

“She looked scared.”

Ronan’s expression darkened.

“She fought hard too.”

Deep claw marks covered the stone walls nearby.

Not ordinary wolf marks.

A strange chill moved down Ariana’s spine.

Then she saw it.

Another message.

Written in blood across the council floor.

THE HEIR HAS AWAKENED.

Ariana froze instantly.

Her chest tightened painfully.

The room suddenly felt too hot.

Kael noticed her breathing change immediately.

“Ariana.”

But she barely heard him.

The words on the floor blurred slightly as another vision slammed into her mind.

Silver wolves running through snow.

War cries echoing across mountains.

A crown stained with blood.

Then…

A man kneeling before her.

“We failed you, Princess.”

Ariana gasped sharply and stumbled backward.

Kael caught her before she hit the floor.

“Again?” Ronan muttered quietly.

Ariana gripped Kael’s sleeve tightly without realizing it.

“There was a war.”

Kael’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of war?”

“I don’t know.”

Her breathing remained uneven.

“But people died protecting me.”

The chamber fell silent.

Kael slowly released her once she steadied herself.

Ariana looked around shakily.

“What if these memories never stop?”

Kael’s gaze remained fixed on her.

“They won’t.”

That answer terrified her more than it should have.

---

Hours later, the estate became heavily guarded.

Nobody entered or left without Kael’s permission.

The council’s deaths changed everything.

The kingdom would panic once the news spread.

Kael stood inside his office while Ronan paced nearby.

“She’s the target,” Ronan said quietly.

“No,” Kael replied. “She’s the reason.”

“There’s a difference.”

Kael rested both hands against the desk.

“Someone massacred the entire council hours after they identified her.”

“And?”

“And someone powerful wants Ariana found.”

Ronan stopped pacing.

“Or protected.”

Kael looked up sharply.

Ronan sighed quietly.

“Think about it. Every attack connected to Ariana could’ve killed her.”

“But didn’t.”

Kael’s jaw tightened slightly.

Because Ronan was right.

The guards died, the council died, the assassin died.

Yet Ariana somehow remained untouched every single time.

Like someone was removing obstacles around her.

The thought unsettled him deeply.

A knock interrupted the silence.

“Enter.”

One guard stepped inside nervously.

“Alpha… there’s another issue.”

Kael’s patience visibly thinned. “What now?”

“The Luna disappeared.”

---

Ariana stood barefoot in the rain.

She didn’t remember leaving the estate.

Didn’t remember walking through the forest.

One moment she was in her room.

The next she stood beneath towering trees while moonlight spilled through the branches above her.

Cold wind moved through her hair softly.

But somehow…

she wasn’t cold.

Ariana looked around slowly.

The forest felt familiar.

Wrongly familiar.

Like returning to a place she forgot existed.

Then she heard it.

A howl.

Deep and ancient.

Ariana’s heart pounded instantly.

Another howl answered from somewhere deeper in the forest.

Then another.

Wolves.

A dozens of them.

Ariana should’ve been terrified.

Instead…

something inside her pulled toward the sound.

She began walking.

Branches snapped softly beneath her feet while fog curled between the trees.

The howls grew louder.

Ariana stepped into a clearing suddenly…

And froze.

Massive wolves surrounded the clearing silently.

Gray, black and silver.

Their glowing eyes remained fixed entirely on her.

None attacked

They simply watched.

Ariana’s breathing slowed.

One enormous silver wolf stepped forward slowly from the shadows.

Larger than the others.

Its eyes glowed pale silver beneath the moonlight.

The moment Ariana saw it…

Pain exploded through her chest.

The white wolf from her visions.

The same one.

The creature lowered its head slowly toward her.

Not in threat but recognition.

Ariana whispered shakily…

“Who are you?”

The wolf’s eyes never left hers.

Then suddenly…

Every wolf in the clearing bowed.

Ariana’s breath caught violently.

“No…”

The silver wolf stepped closer until only inches separated them.

Its massive head lowered gently beside her shoulder.

And somewhere deep inside her mind…

A voice spoke clearly for the first time.

Welcome home, little queen.

Ariana stumbled backward in shock.

“What?”

The wolves lifted their heads instantly.

The voice came again.

We have searched for you for years.

Ariana pressed trembling hands against her ears.

“No… no…”

The wolf moved closer again.

Your blood remembers us.

Tears burned behind Ariana’s eyes.

“I don’t understand!”

But deep down…

something inside her already did.

A sharp growl suddenly echoed through the clearing.

Every wolf turned instantly.

Kael emerged from the forest shadows in his wolf form, enormous and black as midnight.

His glowing eyes landed directly on Ariana.

Then shifted toward the silver wolf beside her.

The atmosphere changed instantly.

The silver wolf stepped protectively in front of Ariana.

Kael growled low in response.

The surrounding wolves backed away carefully.

Ariana looked between them in panic.

“Stop!”

Neither wolf moved.

The silver wolf’s voice returned inside her mind.

The dark Alpha cannot protect you from what is coming.

Kael snarled sharply.

Like he somehow understood.

Then suddenly…

A gunshot exploded through the forest.

The silver wolf jerked violently as blood sprayed across the snow.