Chapter 5 A Scar In The Pack

The morning after their return from the Oracle, everything changed

Kael summoned his council at dawn. His voice was calm. His words were clear.

"The girl stays," he told them. "Under my protection. Under my roof. Anyone who defies this challenges my authority as Alpha."

The silence that followed was telling. Some stared in disbelief. Others looked away. And a few-dangerous few-let the growl rumble in their throats.

Aria watched from behind the hall's doors, heart pounding. She wasn't naïve. She knew what her presence was doing to the Pack. They didn't see a girl-they saw a loaded weapon sleeping in the Alpha's house.

They didn't want to understand the bond.

They wanted blood.

---

By mid-afternoon, the stares had become sharper. The whispers louder.

Rynna delivered her meals but didn't stay this time. The guards at the gates didn't meet her eyes anymore. And even the wolves who had once obeyed Kael without question now paused just a little too long when he gave an order.

"You've become the scar in his Pack," Rynna had told her quietly the night before. "The kind that never heals clean."

Aria didn't know what to say to that. Maybe Rynna was right.

But she wasn't going to leave.

Not now.

---

It happened faster than anyone expected.

The challenge came at sundown.

Kael had just returned from patrol when the sound of the ceremonial horn split the air. Low. Haunting. A declaration.

Challenge.

The entire Pack gathered at the stone ring. A sacred place used only for the most serious of confrontations. Kael stepped into the circle first, his expression unreadable. His armor was stripped down to his tunic and bracers. No weapons. No guards.

A lone wolf stood across from him.

Bran.

Aria recognized him instantly-the Beta of Nightfang. Loyal, brutal, and dangerously ambitious.

"You bring shame to this Pack," Bran said, his voice carrying through the crowd. "You shelter a cursed girl. You let her walk beside you. Sleep under your roof. Are we fools to follow an Alpha who chooses a death mark over his bloodline?"

Kael didn't react.

Aria watched from the edge of the ring, heart pounding. She could feel it again-the bond humming beneath her skin. Warning. Urging.

"She didn't ask for the mark," Kael said calmly.

Bran bared his teeth. "And yet you defend her like she's your mate."

Silence.

Kael didn't answer.

He didn't need to.

Gasps rippled through the Pack.

The damage was done.

Bran grinned. "So it's true."

Kael stepped forward. "Are you challenging me for leadership, Bran?"

The Beta's eyes glinted with triumph. "I am."

---

The fight was brutal.

Wolves shifted, teeth and claws flashed, and blood stained the sacred ring. Kael didn't hold back-but neither did Bran. The two were nearly matched in size and strength, their battle shaking the earth beneath them.

Aria couldn't look away.

She wanted to run to him.

She wanted to scream.

But the Oracle's warning rang in her ears: If the bond completes before the moon chooses... one of you dies.

She could feel Kael's pain as if it were her own. Every hit Bran landed echoed in her ribs. Every drop of Kael's blood set her vision spinning.

Then Bran made a mistake.

He went for her.

In a blur of fur and fury, Kael slammed into him, eyes glowing white-hot, and tore through Bran's defenses with a feral roar that silenced the entire Pack.

When it was over, Bran lay broken in the dirt.

Breathing, but defeated.

Kael stood over him, chest heaving. Blood ran from his brow, his lip, his ribs. But his voice was steady.

"Anyone else?"

No one moved.

Kael turned and met Aria's gaze.

Something passed between them then. Raw. Real. Deeper than instinct.

The Pack saw it too.

Not a curse.

A bond.

---

Later that night, Aria sat beside Kael in his quarters as Rynna cleaned the gash across his shoulder. She didn't speak, but her hands were gentle, careful.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Kael asked Aria once they were alone.

She looked at him sharply. "If I interfered, you'd be stripped of your victory. The Pack would say I protected you."

"They already think you control me."

"Do I?"

His eyes flicked to her. "More than you should."

They sat in silence for a moment, the fire crackling between them.

Then Aria said, softly, "I felt it. When he hit you. It hurt."

Kael nodded. "I felt your fear. It made me fight harder."

The bond was deepening. She could feel it like a second heartbeat now. Closer. Louder.

"But you didn't deny it," she said.

"What?"

"When Bran said I was your mate. You didn't deny it."

Kael's expression tightened. "Because I don't know if I can."

Her breath caught.

"There's something you should know," he said suddenly, standing. "Something I didn't tell the Oracle."

Aria stood too. "What?"

Kael turned, his eyes filled with something between fear and fate.

"My father died by a Moonmarked girl's hand."

Aria froze. "What?"

"She touched him. Just like you touched me. But it wasn't the mark that killed him. It was the bond. He fought it. Denied it. And it destroyed him."

Her hands trembled. "Then why... why risk this?"

Kael took a step closer.

"Because I'm not him."

He reached out, but stopped just short of touching her. "I'm not afraid of you, Aria."

She wanted to believe him.

She almost did.

But as the fire flickered and the moon rose behind them, Aria realized the truth.

The curse wasn't just in her blood.

It was in her bond.

And if they weren't careful-it would consume them both.