CHAPTER 6

Ellia POV

“A blood baptism!”

The words still rang in my ears for a while after–

Then the yard went dead quiet, every eye locked on me now…awaiting my reponse.

“No!!” The words tore right out of me before I could stop it.

“No!”

Slowly, the murmurs began to stirr up again…

I turned to face then now again, now it wasn’t fear thah filled my expresion, it was anger and frustration—

Selene was here, Beta Marsh was just beside me..faces on faces on faces all tinged with hate for me. And then him–at the back of the crowd, staring at me with those cold eyes.

Alpha Cassien.

I snapped my head to Beta Marsh—“you said that thing!” I pointed to the river.

“…is lethal.”

“Very much so.” His answer came quickly.

“And you expect me to go in it?!” The sharpness in my tone was clear.

Beta Marsh stepped foward to me. “If your blood is true, it will recognize you.”

If? That’s the word again..if.

“And if it doesn’t?” I asked sharply.

Silence answered me. 

I looked around the yard, at their faces, but no one answered.

“Beta….” I turned to him again, my voice even sharper now. “What happens if it doesn’t?”

“Then it will consume you.”

A voice answered me for him. I turned just as Alpha Cassien stepped through the crowd and stood across me.

Every muscle in my body locked to the spot. 

Consume?

He said it so casually, like as  if we were discussing weather.

My voice came out thin and weak now .“Consume me?”

His expresion hardly changed as he spoke again. “What Beta Marsh missed out was that the river contains concentrated blood essence from generations of royal wolves…”

“And?”

His eyes hardened on mine. “It accepts those you are chosen and rejects the false ones.”

Reject? I was scared to ask how it rejects…but I was sure it ended up with the person dying..painfully.

Well that was answer already! No!

“No!” I stepped back from the river. “I’m not doing this!”

“I’m not!”

As I took more steps away, I saw a couple of guards by the wall, step foward to me. 

“You can’t force me! I don’t want to do it!” My voice moved easily across the yard.

Beta Marsh remained calm as he spoke. “Refusal equals forfeiture..”

“I don’t care!”

The moment I said it, a huge wave of gasps rippled through the yard.

I didn’t care anymore… I was done with this. Done!

“I don’t want your throne! 

I pointed at the river. “I don’t want whatever psychotic medieval nonsense this is!” When I said that my eyes locked on Alpha Cassien.

The murmurs came in again, more potent this time. I could hear the insults, then calling me disrespectful..unworthy, a coward.

I barely noticed it then, because I was staring at Cassien and at his cold face.

“You want honesty?” I snapped at him. 

“Fine.”

I laughed bitterly. “I was living a normal life three days ago…

…I had school..a home, normal friends, bullies, gosh even a crush. I had a life! A good one….”

I pointed at the area around us. “Then you people dragged me here. You!”

“Now you expect me to jump into acid blood to prove I deserve a kingdom I never asked for?”

A heavy silence followed after that—

 Then Cassien spoke, his voice low. “You think this is about what you asked for? You think I asked for this?”

His voice carried across the entire platform. “This kingdom has waited eighteen years for this..for their bethrothed Alpha…it’s your responsibility!”

“It’s not!” I snapped back, the anger flaring up. “I don’t want it.. I don’t!”

For a moment longer, our eyes remained directly locked on others…

I saw a small crack in his expresion. It wasn’t that cold face or the hateful one…like a small crack of hurt or pity—like he understood me…

Did he?

“Now!”

A voice shot out and gaurds marched to me before I could react—

“No!”

They grabbed my arms, from both sides, their grip form.

“No! Let go!”

I kicked and thrashed out. .

“I said let me go!”

My scream echoed.

Then—

Cassien moved to me in a heartbeat….

One second he stood twenty feet away, then the next he was in front of me.

“Let her go..” his voice was calm, but the weight behind it made the guards do so quickly and step away.

I yanked my hand back quickly and took a few more steps away. “Stay away from me. All of you!”

Alpha Cassien didn’t do anything for a while, then suddenly…he  removed his jacket and walked to me..no, past me.

What? What was he–

I was confused and so was the crowd…

What the hell was he doing?

Without a word, he walked to the river and stopped exactly at the edge.

Then he turned and held out his hand to me.

I stared in shock for a beat—

“What?”

then the next words he said..made my heart skip a couple of beats. 

“I’ll go with you.”

For a while it was silence in the yard. Then—

The entire platform erupted.

“What?”

“Impossible!”

“Acting Alpha—!”

Selene, Beta Maesh all of them looked genuinely stunned, so was I and then some even…

I looked between him and the river, then back at him.

“Why?”

His expression didn’t change as he answered. 

“Because if you die before Trial Two, this entire process becomes pointless.”

Liar.

I didn’t know how I knew, but that wasn’t the whole truth, very..very far from it even. 

Still—

His hand remained extended to me, waiting to be taken..

The crowd around us watchd agonizingly now for my reponse.

I hated this. I hated all of it. The trial, the insults..everything!

But somehow…

His presence steadied me..I didn’t know how to explain it. 

But it did…i hated that it did, but it did…

Then—

I slowly placed my hand in his.

The moment our skin touched—

That pull from earlier returned, even stronger this time.

And then, together, we stepped toward the river.

The moment the blood touched my feet—

“Arghh!!” A loud scream tore out of me as a massive wave of pain hit me.

I was feeling fire, acid, knives, all of it and all at once….

I nearly collapsed to the blood, but Cassien held me stronger.

“You have to hold on.”

“It hurts—”

“Hold on.” He cut me off, his voice sharp.

I have to hold on…

I shut my eyes hard as the river rose further and further up my body—

It moved from my legs, then to my waist and to my chest. 

The pain was unbearably now…

Then everything stopped.

Silence.

The pain vanished in a flash and the river went still.

Then the river of blood, changed color?

What?

It turned to a bright golden color. 

The crowd gasped in shock…

The color filled the river and instead of pain..I felt a soothing warmth and sensation coursing in me.

The crowd continued to rant out. 

“Impossible!”

“No—”

“What is she?!”

I couldn’t move or think, heck, I could barely breathe.

Then—

I felt all the light in me vanished in one beat. 

I collapsed to the floor, but arms caught me before I hit the ground.

Cassien.

The last thing I saw before blackness took me—

It was the shock on his face…

When I woke up…the voices were the first thing I could pinpoint.

Then, I forced my eyes open.

Selene stood near my bed with other faces around as well.

Everyone looked shaken, like they had just seen a ghost.

I pushed myself upright. “What happened?”

No one answered immediately, then an elderly man spoke. “The first trial is complete, and..

..you passed.”

I barely had time to process how I felt about that when another man sloke.

“Prepare for the second trial.”

My stomach sank.

Second trail?!

“What is the second trial?” I asked sharply.

No one answered at first…then right in front of my eye—

Serena who looked normal, like any other person, broke her limbs, then her elbows and her neck…furs began growing around her—

And in the next minute she was a full beast…

“No. Way…”

The elderly man spoke again. “Trial Two begins at moonrise and you must shift into your own wolf.”

Shift..?

How?