Chapter 3: The Blood Prophecy
Kane Blackthorne stood in the war room of the pack house, staring at the map spread across the ancient oak table. Red pins marked the locations where rogue attacks had occurred over the past three months, forming a pattern that made his stomach clench with dread. The rogues weren't random attacks—they were systematically probing the Shadowpine territory's defenses, testing for weaknesses.
But that wasn't what had him pacing like a caged animal at three in the morning.
For the past four days, since the night he had rejected Aria, his wolf had been going insane. The phantom bond that should have faded by now instead pulsed with an energy that made his bones ache and his vision blur. Worse, he could swear he felt power growing on the other end of that severed connection, something vast and alien that made his Alpha instincts scream warnings.
"Still can't sleep?" Derek's voice came from the doorway, and Kane turned to see his Beta approaching with two steaming cups of coffee.
"The rogues moved again last night," Kane said, accepting the cup gratefully. "They hit the eastern border, took out two patrol teams before retreating."
Derek nodded grimly. "I heard. But that's not why you're up, is it?"
Kane's jaw tightened. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"The mate bond, Kane. I can smell the pain on you. It's getting worse instead of better."
"It will fade," Kane insisted, though his voice lacked conviction. "It has to."
Derek set down his coffee and crossed his arms. "What if it doesn't? What if rejecting her wasn't the clean break you thought it would be?"
Before Kane could answer, the war room door exploded inward, splinters of ancient wood showering the floor. Kane's Gamma, Marcus Stone, stumbled through the wreckage, his face pale with shock and his eyes wild with terror.
"Alpha," he gasped, falling to one knee. "You need to come now. Something's happening at the border."
Kane was already moving, his Alpha instincts overriding everything else. "What kind of something?"
"I can't explain it," Marcus panted as they ran through the corridors. "You have to see it for yourself."
They burst out of the pack house into the pre-dawn darkness, shifting into their wolf forms mid-stride. Kane's massive black wolf easily kept pace with his subordinates as they raced through the forest toward the eastern border. But as they drew closer, he began to smell something that made his fur stand on end.
Magic. Ancient, powerful, and utterly foreign.
They crested a small hill and Kane's wolf skidded to a halt, his yellow eyes widening in disbelief.
The border was on fire.
Not with normal flames, but with silver fire that danced and writhed like living things, creating a barrier that stretched for miles in either direction. And standing in the center of that impossible conflagration was a figure that made Kane's heart stop.
Aria.
But not the Aria he remembered. This woman stood tall and proud, her dark hair whipping around her face in a wind that seemed to exist only for her. Her eyes blazed with silver light, and ancient symbols covered every inch of her exposed skin, glowing like brands against her flesh. She was beautiful and terrifying, power incarnate given female form.
And she was single-handedly holding back an army of rogues.
Kane shifted back to human form, his clothes materializing through pack magic, and stared in shock at the scene before him. Hundreds of rogues pressed against the silver barrier, their howls of rage and pain echoing through the forest as they tried and failed to break through. Some had shifted to human form and were hurling rocks and debris at the flames, only to watch their projectiles disintegrate on contact.
"How is this possible?" Derek breathed beside him, having shifted as well.
Kane couldn't answer. He was too busy trying to process the fact that his rejected mate—the woman he had deemed too weak to stand beside him—was casually repelling an invasion force that would have overwhelmed his entire pack.
But then he noticed something else. Aria was swaying on her feet, and blood was trickling from her nose. Whatever she was doing, it was taking a massive toll on her body.
Without thinking, Kane started toward her. "Aria!"
Her silver gaze snapped to him, and the intensity of it drove him back a step. When she spoke, her voice carried across the battlefield like thunder.
"Stay back, Kane Blackthorne. This is not your fight."
"Like hell it isn't," Kane snarled, his Alpha nature rebelling against being dismissed. "These rogues are attacking my territory."
Aria's laugh was cold and bitter. "Your territory? Look around you, former mate. Where is your precious pack? Where are the warriors you claimed were stronger than me?"
Kane looked back and realized with horror that it was true. His patrol teams were nowhere to be seen. The rogues had somehow bypassed all of his defenses, penetrating deep into pack lands before Aria had stopped them.
"How did they get so far in?" he demanded.
"They didn't come through the forest," Aria replied, her attention divided between him and maintaining the silver barrier. "They came through the shadow realm."
Kane's blood turned to ice. "That's impossible. No one can access the shadow realm except—"
"Except Moon Guardians," Aria finished. "Which means someone is helping them. Someone who knows exactly what I am and exactly how to counter my abilities."
As if summoned by her words, a new figure stepped through the ranks of rogues. Kane recognized him immediately—Lysander Nightfall, the Northern Winds Alpha who had been making territorial moves for months. But the man walking beside him made Kane's wolf flatten itself in instinctive terror.
He was ancient, his appearance shifting and wavering like heat mirages. Sometimes he looked like a normal man, other times Kane caught glimpses of something far older and more terrible. When he spoke, his voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Hello, little guardian," the creature called out, his words somehow carrying clearly through the silver flames. "I am Malachar, First of the Shadow Weavers. And you, my dear, are exactly what I've been looking for."
Aria's face went white, and Kane heard her whisper something that sounded like a prayer. "Shadow Weavers were destroyed millennia ago."
"Destroyed?" Malachar laughed, the sound like breaking glass. "Oh, child. We were never destroyed. We were simply waiting. Waiting for one of your bloodline to awaken so we could complete the ritual that was interrupted so long ago."
"What ritual?" Kane demanded, stepping closer to Aria despite her earlier warning.
Malachar's shifting gaze settled on him with amusement. "Ah, the rejected mate. How fitting that you're here to witness the end of everything you failed to protect."
The ancient creature raised his hand, and the shadow realm itself seemed to respond. Dark tendrils erupted from the ground around Aria's silver fire, not trying to break through but instead beginning to weave around it like a net.
"The Convergence Ritual," Malachar explained conversationally as he worked. "By binding a Moon Guardian's power to the shadow realm, we can tear down the barriers between worlds. Your precious mate's awakening has given us the key we needed."
Aria's flames flickered as the shadow net tightened around them. "I won't let you use me," she snarled, pouring more power into her barrier.
"You don't have a choice," Malachar replied. "The ritual requires willing participation from a guardian, but it only needs to be willing at the moment of binding. And thanks to your dear Alpha's rejection, you're emotionally compromised. Vulnerable."
Kane watched in horror as the shadows began to seep through Aria's defenses. She was powerful, incredibly so, but she was fighting beings that had existed since the dawn of time. She was outmatched and outnumbered, and she was doing it alone because he had thrown her away like garbage.
"There has to be something we can do," Derek said urgently.
Kane's mind raced through every piece of pack lore he had ever learned, every story about Moon Guardians and ancient magic. And then he remembered something his father had told him years ago, a throwaway comment about the old days that suddenly took on new meaning.
"The mate bond," he breathed.
"What?" Derek stared at him.
"Moon Guardians' power is tied to their emotional state," Kane said, his voice gaining strength as the pieces fell into place. "That's why the rejection triggered her awakening—extreme emotional trauma. But it works both ways. Strong positive emotions can amplify their abilities exponentially."
"Kane," Derek said slowly, "please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."
But Kane was already moving, striding toward the battle despite the danger. "Aria!"
She turned at his call, her silver eyes wide with confusion and pain. The shadow net was almost complete now, dark tendrils reaching for her like grasping fingers.
"I was wrong," Kane shouted, his voice carrying all the authority of his Alpha power. "I was an idiot and a coward, and I was wrong about everything."
"Kane, don't," Aria gasped, but he could see hope flickering in her eyes despite her words.
"You are not too weak to be my mate," he continued, stepping right up to the edge of her silver flames. "You are the strongest person I have ever known. You are brilliant and brave and more powerful than I ever imagined possible. I rejected you because I was terrified—not of your weaknesses, but of your strength."
The shadow net hesitated, and Malachar hissed in frustration. "Fool boy! Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
Kane ignored him, his entire focus on Aria. "I was afraid that if the other Alphas knew how powerful you really were, they would come for you. I thought if I rejected you publicly, made you seem ordinary, you would be safe. But I was wrong about that too."
Tears were streaming down Aria's face now, but her flames were growing brighter, the silver fire pushing back against the encroaching shadows.
"I love you," Kane said, the words torn from the depths of his soul. "I have loved you since the moment I saw you, and I will love you until the day I die. I don't deserve your forgiveness, and I don't deserve a second chance, but please—please don't let these bastards use you to destroy everything we care about."
Aria's power exploded outward like a supernova.
The shadow net shredded like tissue paper, and the barrier of silver fire expanded to engulf half the battlefield. Rogues screamed as they were caught in the flames, not burning but simply ceasing to exist as if they had never been born. Even Lysander stumbled backward, his face twisted with fear.
But Malachar only smiled wider. "Perfect."
Kane's triumph turned to horror as he realized his mistake. The Shadow Weaver had been counting on this. He had wanted Aria's power to reach its peak, because that was when she would be most vulnerable to his true attack.
Dark tendrils erupted not from the ground, but from within Aria herself. The shadow magic had been waiting inside her all along, seeded there during her awakening and now triggered by the massive surge of power.
"No," Kane roared, lunging toward her as she collapsed to her knees, shadows pouring out of her mouth and eyes.
"The Convergence begins," Malachar declared, his form solidifying into something nightmarish and ancient. "The barriers fall tonight."
But as Kane reached Aria's side and pulled her into his arms, something unexpected happened. The mate bond, instead of interfering with the ritual as Malachar had feared, began to resonate with the shadow magic in a way none of them had anticipated.
Kane's eyes widened as impossible knowledge flooded his mind, memories that weren't his own showing him truths that had been hidden for millennia.
"Derek!" he shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. "The prophecy! Find Elena and get the prophecy!"
Because Kane now knew something that would change everything.
He wasn't just any Alpha. He wasn't even just Aria's mate.
He was the descendant of the Shadow King, the Moon Guardians' ancient enemy who had been redeemed by love and bound to their bloodline forever.
The Convergence Ritual wasn't meant to destroy the barriers between worlds.
It was meant to create a new kind of guardian entirely.
And Aria's rejection had set in motion events that were about to birth the most powerful supernatural being the world had ever known.
The question was: would it save them all, or destroy everything in the process?