Chapter 4: The Alpha Who Was Ordered to Kill Me

CHAPTER FOUR

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a bed that wasn’t mine.

Heavy velvet curtains blocked the windows, a quiet fire crackled in a stone fireplace, and the air smelled faintly of cedar and rain.

I sat up too quickly. A sharp, burning ache throbbed behind my eyes.

“Easy,” a voice warned softly.

Darius sat in a high-backed chair beside the bed. His shirt was torn across the shoulder, and a deep purple bruise mottled his jawline. He looked exhausted, like he’d aged five years in a single night.

“Where am I?” I rasped, rubbing my temples.

“Blackthorn's medical wing.”

I scanned the carved wood and grand fireplace. “Since when does the medical wing look like a private suite?”

“The main ward sustained too much damage. They moved you here.”

I stared at him. “You expect me to believe that?”

He hesitated, then sighed. “No.”

At least he wasn't going to insult my intelligence.

I threw off the heavy blanket and swung my legs over the side of the mattress. Darius stood up immediately, putting himself in my path.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m going to find out what happened back there.”

“Aria, you nearly brought the entire cafeteria down on top of everyone!”

“I didn't mean to!”

“I know.”

The softness in his voice caught me off guard.

I looked closely at my brother. There was no anger in his eyes only a deep, gnawing dread. And beneath that dread sat something much worse.

Recognition.

“You know what happened to me,” I whispered.

Darius turned his head, unable to meet my eyes. “Aria”

“The rogue called me the daughter of the First Moon,” I pressed, stepping closer. “Then that symbol appeared on my skin, and you looked like you’d seen a ghost. Don't lie to me.”

He stayed silent.

“Tell me the truth, Darius.”

“Sit down.”

“No.”

“Aria, please.”

The raw crack in his voice froze me. My brother had never begged for anything in his life.

He pulled his hands over his face, breathing out a heavy, ragged sigh before meeting my gaze again. “There are things about our family... things you don’t understand.”

“Then explain them to me!”

“I can't.”

“Can't, or won't?”

His silence was an admission of guilt.

I laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. “First Kieran tells me our parents didn't die in an accident like you claimed. Then those... things attack me, and you look like you were expecting them. And now you’re standing here telling me you can’t explain a damn thing?”

“I am trying to keep you alive!”

“From what? The truth?”

“From people who will put a blade through your heart the second they figure out what you are!” he snapped, his voice tight with desperation. He reached toward me, his hand hovering in the air. “Our parents spent their entire lives hiding what we are. When they disappeared, I promised them I would protect you. I thought if we stayed away from the old territories, if we buried the past, we could just... be normal.”

“So you brought me to an academy run by our family's sworn enemies?”

His jaw clenched. “I didn't know it would come to this.”

“Did you know Kieran was my mate?”

“No.”

The answer flew out too fast, too defensive.

I narrowed my eyes. “Look me in the eye and say it again.”

His gaze locked onto mine, unblinking. “I didn't know he was your mate.”

For a second, I almost believed him.

Then he added quietly, “...But I knew he might recognize the mark.”

My stomach dropped. “What mark?”

Darius looked pointedly at my right arm.

I followed his gaze and gasped.

The silver skin pattern had returned. A delicate, glowing crescent moon surrounded by three sharp, faint lines, etched perfectly into the underside of my wrist.

My mother's mark.

I’d seen it hidden in her journal. I’d seen it stamped on a pendant she wore every single day. I’d even seen it faintly traced on her own skin when I was a child.

My fingers brushed over the mark. It hummed softly, warm to the touch.

“Why do I have this?”

Darius reached for my hand, but I flinched, pulling back. “Don't.”

He lowered his hand slowly, looking defeated. “Aria, you have to understand. Whatever happened in that room... it can never happen again. You cannot lose control.”

“Then help me control it!”

“I don't know how!”

“How convenient.”

His eyes flared with sudden fury. “You think I want this? You think I want to sit here, terrified that if the wrong pack finds out what’s running through your veins, I won't be able to save you?”

I swallowed hard, the anger draining out of me.

For the first time, I realized his fear wasn't just about Kieran or the academy rules. Darius was terrified of something ancient something our parents had died trying to keep buried.

Before I could demand more answers, the heavy oak door clicked and swung open.

Kieran stepped into the room.

His black shirt was slashed and stained with dried blood, a white bandage wrapped tightly around his forearm. His dark eyes bypassed Darius entirely, locking onto mine.

Darius instantly shifted, placing his body between us. “Get out.”

Kieran didn't even look at him. “Leave us.”

I pulled myself up to my full height. “Both of you seem to forget that this is my life. Neither of you gets to decide who I talk to.”

Kieran’s eyes dragged back to me, cool and calculating. “You're right.”

The unexpected surrender threw me off.

He crossed the threshold, stopping several feet short of the bed intentionally keeping his distance, as if aware that touching me might spark another blast.

It was the first sign of restraint he had shown since I’d met him. I didn't trust it for a second.

“What do you want?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Answers.”

“Join the club.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but the mask slammed back into place instantly. “Those rogues weren't normal. Someone modified them stripped their instincts, broke their minds, and turned them into feral weapons.”

“And they came straight for me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Kieran’s eyes dropped to the faintly glowing symbol on my wrist. “Because of what woke up inside you.”

“You know what it is?”

“I know what the old legends call it.”

“Which is?”

“The First Moon.”

The words seemed to drop the temperature in the room by ten degrees.

Kieran took a slow step forward, his voice low and steady. “According to the oldest pack archives, the First Moon bloodline predates both the Red and Blue Moon dynasties. Wolves of that blood could defy Alpha commands, break ancestral mate bonds, and single-handedly crush an entire pack’s power.”

I stared at him blankly. “That sounds like a bedtime story.”

“Then explain how you defied my voice in the cafeteria.”

I had no response to that.

He moved closer, his dark eyes burning into mine. “Your power reacted the second that creature recognized you. It fed off your terror, and it nearly leveled the room.”

My stomach churned. “Are you saying I’m a danger to everyone around me?”

“I'm saying someone knows what you are, and they were willing to send suicidal monsters into a high-security academy just to drag you out.”

Darius stepped forward, his fists balling at his sides. “That's enough, Kieran.”

Kieran turned a cold look onto my brother. “You should have told her years ago.”

“You don't know anything about my family!”

“I know your father begged mine to burn the First Moon records.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

I looked between them, my pulse hammering against my ribs. “My father... knew your father?”

Darius went pale as marble.

Kieran didn't look away. “Yes,” he said softly. “And if your brother told you our families were enemies from the start, he lied.”

Darius lunged, grabbing Kieran by the collar of his ruined shirt. “I swear to God, Kieran, say one more word”

Kieran didn't even try to throw him off. He just stared at Darius with deadly calm.

“Tell her what happened the night your parents disappeared, Darius. Tell her why the last person seen with her mother... was my father.”

My breath caught in my throat. The room felt like it was spinning out of control.

“My mother... knew your father?” I whispered.

Kieran’s eyes softened just a fraction as he looked at me. “Yes.”

“Were they working together?”

“I don't know.”

“Did he kill her?”

Something shifted in Kieran's face. For the first time, the cold, unyielding Alpha facade cracked, revealing a deep, shadowy pain.

“I don't know,” he repeated quietly.

I wanted to hate him. I wanted to scream at Darius for building my entire life on a foundation of lies. But all I could picture was my mother her soft smile, the way she used to tuck my hair behind my ear and promise that no harm would ever find me.

What had she been involved in? And why had her past followed me all the way to Blackthorn?

I looked directly at my brother. “I'm going to find out what happened to them.”

“Aria, no”

“I am done being protected by secrets.”

Darius looked as if I’d driven a blade through his chest.

Kieran watched me silently for a long moment. Then, his voice quiet, he said, “If you try to dig into the First Moon bloodline on your own, you won't survive the week.”

I lifted my chin, defying the chill in his tone. “Is that a threat?”

“No.” He glanced down at my wrist one last time. “It's a warning.”

“Then I'll take my chances.”

Kieran studied my face, a dark, unreadable expression settling over his features. “That's exactly what your mother said.”

I went dead still. “What?”

He turned on his heel toward the door.

“Kieran!” I called out. “How do you know what she said?”

He stopped, his hand resting on the brass door handle. He didn't turn around.

Sliding his free hand into his pocket, he withdrew a small silver object that caught the firelight.

A pendant.

My heart stopped. It was a silver crescent moon with a tiny scratch near the clasp and a broken chain the exact necklace my mother had worn every single day until the night she vanished. I had spent years searching through our old house for it.

Kieran held it up, letting it dangle from his fingertips.

“My father gave this to me three days before he disappeared,” Kieran said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “He told me that if I ever met a girl with silver marks beneath her skin, I was supposed to give it to her.”

My hands began to shake violently. “Why do you have my mother's necklace?”

Kieran finally turned to face me.

His eyes locked onto mine, and the mate bond flared between us with such violent intensity that I had to grab the bedpost to keep my balance.

“Because,” he said softly, “my father believed you would be the death of me.”

A suffocating silence descended over the room.

Then Kieran delivered the blow that shattered everything I thought I knew about my life.

“And Aria? He wasn't talking about your power.”

He stepped forward, placing the cool metal of the pendant into my trembling palm.

“He was talking about the night I was ordered to kill you.”