5 ~ Even Their Bloodlines Will Die

THIRD PERSON’S MULTIPLE POV

As music pounded through massive speakers and students sprawled across deck chairs, drinks in hand, their laughter echoing across the palace grounds, Aurelian stood near the edge of the pool wearing Dylan’s face, hyper-aware of the full moon overhead.

Every instinct screamed danger. The moonlight made his borrowed skin prickle uncomfortably, the disguise harder to maintain than it should be.

“There you are!” Tavian stopped beside him, grinning, two drinks in hand. “Thought you’d ditched me.”

“Just needed air.” Aurelian accepted the drink but didn’t sip. He couldn’t risk anything that might weaken his control.

“Air?” Tavian’s hazel eyes sparkled with amusement. “We’re already outside.” He gestured at the pool. “Some of us are starting chicken fights. Come on.”

“I’m good here.”

“Scared I’ll beat you?”

“Terrified,” Aurelian said, using Dylan’s easy, playful tone.

Tavian laughed and leaned against the railing—close enough that their shoulders almost touched. Aurelian shifted slightly away.

“You know,” Tavian said, his voice dropping lower, “when you first showed up, I thought you’d be another boring rich kid. But you’re different. Interesting.”

Before Aurelian could reply, headlights swept across the entrance gates. Engines growled like beasts.

The music suddenly seemed too loud.

Three black cars rolled through the gates.

The party stopped. Students exchanged nervous glances.

Rhydian stood from where he had been sitting with Astarian, his expression darkening. “They weren’t supposed to be back tonight.”

The car doors opened in perfect synchronization.

Alpha Kael emerged first, his presence killing the atmosphere like a match snuffed underwater. Alpha Lucien and Alpha Soren followed, all three in formal dark suits that made them look like executioners.

They walked past the pool without acknowledging anyone. Kael’s eyes found Rhydian—the look could have frozen blood. Lucien’s gaze swept over Astarian with similar coldness. Soren didn’t even glance at Tavian.

Then they disappeared through the palace doors.

Aurelian stared after them, hands clenching into fists so tight Dylan’s stolen knuckles went bone-white.

‘Twenty years,’ he thought. ‘Twenty years, and they’re still breathing. Still walking around like they didn’t massacre innocent families.’

“Dylan?” Tavian touched his arm lightly. “You okay?”

Aurelian jerked away like he had been burned. “Fine. Bathroom. Be right back.”

He didn’t wait for a response.

~~~~~

Aurelian moved through the palace’s hallways as quietly as possible, every footstep deliberate. His heart hammered against his ribs.

Then he found him.

Alpha Lucien. Alone in a private study, pouring whiskey into a crystal tumbler.

The alpha’s back was turned. Completely unguarded.

Aurelian’s hand went to the knife Kaidora had given him—hidden inside Dylan’s jacket, cold steel against his ribs. ‘This is it. Justice, twenty years overdue.’

His form rippled and shifted. Dylan’s face melted away, replaced by the young maid he had seen earlier working in the kitchens. Dark hair pulled back. Plain features. Forgettable.

He stepped forward silently. Raised the blade. Aimed for the space between Lucien’s shoulder blades—right where the heart would be.

Lucien turned.

Their eyes met.

Recognition flickered across Lucien’s face—not of who Aurelian was, but of threat. Of wrongness. Of imminent death.

Aurelian struck.

But Lucien moved with speed, twisting away. The knife meant for his heart carved across his ribs instead, splitting fabric and flesh. Blood bloomed dark across the white shirt.

Lucien’s scream tore through the silence. “ATTACK! INTRUDER IN THE PALACE!”

Aurelian ran.

He bolted from the study as guards’ boots pounded toward the sound. Behind him, Lucien’s shouts echoed through marble halls like a death knell. He sprinted through corridors, past stunned servants, through the gardens at full speed.

Behind him, car engines roared to life.

~~~~~

Aurelian’s lungs burned. Branches clawed at the maid’s borrowed face as he crashed through darkness. The full moon overhead made everything worse—his powers draining faster, his body struggling to hold the disguise.

Headlights cut through the trees behind him. The cars couldn’t follow into the dense forest, but he heard doors slamming. Heard the alphas shifting.

Wolves are faster.

He yanked out his phone with shaking hands, nearly dropping it. Dialed the number burned into memory.

Dylan answered immediately. “What’s wrong?”

Aurelian’s voice came out ragged, breathless. “I failed. They’re chasing me. I’m heading toward the temple.”

“Aurelian, it’s a full moon, you’re weak—”

“I know!” He jumped over a fallen log, barely keeping his footing. “There’s nowhere else. I’m almost there.”

“We’re coming—”

The line cut. No signal this deep in the forest.

Aurelian shoved the phone away and pushed himself harder. The suppressants were failing—his omega scent leaking through like blood in water. The full moon’s weight crushed him, draining his strength with every second.

Massive shapes moved through the darkness behind him.

Three wolves. Each enormous, muscles rippling beneath fur that shone silver under moonlight. Eyes reflecting like coins.

The growls grew louder. Closer.

Aurelian’s legs gave out near the temple clearing. He hit the ground hard, gasping, vision blurring. The full moon pressed down on him like a physical weight. He tried to crawl, but his body wouldn’t obey.

The maid’s face flickered—his disguise failing.

No. Not now. Not here.

Footsteps crashed through the underbrush behind him. He could hear them shifting back to human form, their voices cutting through the night.

“Where did she go?”

“The scent ends here—”

Then hands grabbed him—gentle hands, not claws.

“Aurelian!” Kaidora’s voice, urgent and low. She hauled him upright, dragging him behind a massive boulder just as the alphas burst into the clearing.

Dylan appeared on Aurelian’s other side, supporting his weight. “I’ve got you. Stay quiet.”

They pressed themselves against the cold stone, barely breathing.

The three alpha kings stood in the clearing where Aurelian had collapsed moments before, breathing hard, eyes scanning the darkness.

“She was right here,” Kael snarled, frustration sharp in his voice. “I can still smell her.”

“The trail goes cold at this spot,” Lucien said, crouching to examine the ground. Blood—Aurelian’s blood—stained the moss. “She’s injured. She can’t have gone far.”

Soren’s eyes glowed in the moonlight as he scanned the tree line. “Split up. Find her.”

Behind the boulder, Kaidora’s hand clamped over Aurelian’s mouth as a whimper tried to escape. His wounds burned, his strength completely drained.

Dylan met his mother’s eyes. A silent understanding passed between them.

He mouthed, ‘I’ll lead them away.’

Kaidora shook her head violently. ‘No.’

But Dylan was already shifting—his features melting, reshaping into the young maid’s face Aurelian had worn. Dark hair.

“Dylan, don’t—” Aurelian whispered, barely audible.

Dylan squeezed his shoulder once. Then he stood and bolted from their hiding spot in the opposite direction—away from the temple, away from them.

His footsteps crashed deliberately through the underbrush.

“There!” Kael’s roar shook the trees.

The three alphas took off after the sound, their forms blurring as they shifted mid-run. Massive wolves tearing through the forest, hunting their prey.

Kaidora held Aurelian tighter, her hand still over his mouth, tears streaming silently down her face.

“Dylan—” Aurelian tried to move, tried to follow, but Kaidora’s grip was iron.

“He made his choice,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Don’t let it be for nothing.”

The sounds grew fainter. Then—

A scream. Raw. Terrified. Cut short.

Silence crashed down like a guillotine.

Kaidora’s body went rigid. A sound tore from her throat—barely human, a mother’s grief too vast for words.

Only when the forest fell completely silent did Kaidora release Aurelian. He collapsed forward, gasping. “Dylan—I have to—”

She helped him to his feet, supporting most of his weight. Together, they stumbled through the forest, following the path Dylan had taken.

They found him in a small clearing bathed in merciless moonlight.

Dylan’s body lay crumpled on the ground, staring at nothing.

Kaidora’s legs gave out. She fell to her knees beside her son’s body, a keening wail tearing from her chest—ancient, primal, the sound of a soul being ripped apart.

Aurelian stood frozen, staring at his friend’s broken form. The friend who had smiled at him hours ago. Who had promised to help him get justice. Who had just sacrificed everything to save him.

‘This is my fault,’ he thought numbly. ‘He died because of me. Because I failed.’

Slowly, carefully, Kaidora reached out and closed Dylan’s eyes.

She began to sing—low and broken, a mourning song in the old omega language. The melody was ancient, passed down through generations to honor the dead.

Aurelian sank to his knees beside them. He looked at Dylan’s face.

‘They did this,’ he thought, watching Dylan’s blood soak into the same earth that had drunk his mother’s blood twenty years ago.

I’ll kill them all.

They will suffer exactly as Dylan suffered. As my mother suffered. As every innocent soul they’ve destroyed suffered.

I swear it on your body, Dylan. On my mother’s grave. On every omega they’ve murdered.

Even their bloodlines would not be spared. None.

This… is an Omega’s promise.