CHAPTER FIVE — THE AFTERMATH OF SHADOWS
Aria's POV
The world returned in shattered pieces.
Claws. Screams. Splintered wood. Blood on the air so thick it coated my tongue.
Declan's black wolf tore into the wraith wolf that had leapt for me, slamming it into the broken flooring with enough force to crack the foundation. The creature shrieked a sound that didn't belong in our world, something dead dragged back into motion, a howl warped and hollow and wrong.
I stumbled back as my mother pulled me behind her, but everything inside me the wolf, the bond, my instincts screamed at me to go forward. Toward him.
Toward Declan.
Not because he needed me.
But because something inside me needed him.
The house was chaos. Windows blown inward, glass crunching under shifting paws. Two other wraith wolves clawed their way in through the broken frame, their eyes glowing a sickly red. Their scent hit me like rot mixed with metallic magic dark sorcery that didn't belong anywhere near Blackwood Ridge.
Owen shifted beside Tasha, slamming into a wolf lunging toward her. Marcus roared an Alpha command that rattled the walls, his voice layered with old power.
"DEFEND THE HOUSE!"
Another blast of pressure surged like reality bending my vision swimming.
Because the bond reacted again.
Declan's wolf jerked mid-fight, his movements stuttering just for a second, as if something yanked at his mind. The wraith wolf nearly caught his throat.
"No!" I cried out.
The word wasn't human. It came from someplace deeper, laced with something ancient and primal.
Declan heard it.
He snapped back into control, ripping the creature apart with a violent twist. Blood sprayed the wall in a black arc. The wraith wolf dissolved into ash the moment it hit the ground.
Dark magic.
Real. Tangible. Corrupt.
I barely had time to absorb the horror of it before another one lunged not at the Alpha, not at my mother
At me..
Straight at me.
Its eyes locked onto mine like it had been sent for one purpose. A purpose it would die fulfilling.
Declan's head snapped toward me even before I screamed. He lunged.
And the bond detonated.
Not literally but it felt like it.
A surge of energy ripped through the room, through me, through him, through the air itself. The wraith wolf was flung backward as if struck by an invisible hammer.
My vision went white. My knees buckled.
Declan shifted mid-air fur dissolving, bones reshaping, until he was human again, naked and smeared with ash and blood, skidding across the floor as he reached me.
"Aria" His voice shook. "Are you hurt?"
touched my arms, my shoulders, my face, every motion frantic and terrified.
"I'm fine," I whispered.
Even though I wasn't completely sure I was telling the truth.
His eyes flared silver not the norma glow of a wolf, but something brighter, sharper, more dangerous.
Magic.
The forbidden kind.
His hand trembled on my cheek. "That surge came from me. I didn't mean to I wasn't even trying"
Mom shoved him back hard. "Get away from her!"
Declan didn't move far just enough to avoid tearing her arms off by accident. But his jaw tightened.
"I won't hurt her," he growled.
"You already are," she snapped.
Another wraith wolf lunged toward us its jaws open, its limbs unnaturally elongated like a nightmare creature. Marcus intercepted it, shifting with a speed that should have been impossible for a wolf his age. He crushed the creature beneath his weight, snapping its neck cleanly.
But the moment it hit the ground, it crumbled into ash.
Not blood.
Not flesh.
Ash.
Wraith wolves weren't truly alive.
They were summoned.
No created.
The thought sent a chill up my spine.
The last remaining wraith wolf, seeing its pack fall, turned toward the broken window and bolted—moving with a jerky, unnatural speed.
Declan's head snapped toward Marcus. "If it escapes—"
"I KNOW!" Marcus roared.
He shifted again and tore after it into the forest, Owen right behind him.
And then it was silent.
Except for the sound of my heartbeat.
Except for Declan breathing like he'd just run miles.
Except for my mother, who was trembling with fury and fear.
Tasha was shaking. "What were those things? Wolves shouldn't—wolves don't move like that. They don't smell like that."
"No," Mom whispered. "They don't."
Her eyes widened.
She was scared.
Truly scared.
And my mother never showed fear.
I stepped forward. "Mom"
Declan grabbed my wrist gently. "Wait."
Mom's gaze snapped to his hand. "Let her go."
He didn't.
Not immediately.
His grip wasn't possessive it was grounding, steady, like he was afraid I'd vanish if he didn't anchor me.
Slowly, he released me.
But his fingers shook.
I swallowed. "Declan… what were those things?"
He looked at the ash on the floor, brow furrowed with something between dread and fury.
"Not wraith wolves," he murmured. "Wraith wolves don't exist. Not naturally. They were extinct centuries ago. Banished."
"Then what were they?" Tasha asked shakily.
"Constructs," he whispered. "Made from dead wolves. Reanimated with forbidden magic."
My stomach lurched. "Reanimated? As in… someone raised them?"
"Not raised," he said. "Controlled."
Controlled.
Like puppets.
Sent straight to this house.
Sent for me.
Sent to kill me.
Or maybe… sent to trigger him.
Mom turned pale. "This is connected to the bond. Isn't it?"
Declan's silence was answer enough.
But he eventually nodded once. "Yes."
The room spun slightly.
"Someone sent those things after her," Mom said. "Someone knows she's your mate."
Declan's jaw locked.
"Not necessarily," he said. "They might be after me. And she's where I'd go when the bond destabilizes."
That didn't make me feel better.
At all.
Tasha stepped closer, voice trembling. "Declan… why is the bond destabilizing?"
He didn't answer.
He looked at me instead.
Right at me.
"Because of the magic inside me."
Mom shut her eyes as if she already knew this, feared this.
I forced my voice to work. "Magic that started before you even knew I was your mate?"
"Yes," he said quietly. "But it grew stronger the moment the bond snapped into place."
The lights flickered again.
Declan flinched.
I wasn't even touching him.
But the bond hummed between us—hot, electric, hungry.
Mom took my arm. "You're leaving this house tonight."
"Mom"
"No arguments."
"I'm not running," I snapped.
"You are if I say you are!" she shouted back, panic finally spilling through the cracks of her cold façade.
Declan moved closer. "Aria isn't safe because of the magic. Because of the wolves. Because of the bond. But none of those are reasons to run."
My mother's eyes narrowed. "You want her under your control."
"I want her ALIVE," he snarled.
The lights flickered harder.
I felt the bond tug hard enough to make me step forward involuntarily.
Declan clenched his fists. "Aria don't move."
"I'm not trying," I whispered.
His eyes widened.
The bond pulled again.
Like a thread caught on fire between us.
I gritted my teeth, digging my heels into the broken flooring. "Stop pulling"
"I'm not," he growled.
Another surge shot through the room.
Tasha cried out and staggered into Owen's arms. Glass rattled. The walls creaked. The floor hummed under my feet.
Mom pulled me backward with all her strength.
Declan was pulled forward anyway.
Our bodies moved toward each other like magnets—unable to resist, unable to stop. His breath hitched. Mine stuttered.
The gap closed
Six feet.
Four.
Two.
One
And then
A shockwave blasted outward.
Everyone except us was thrown backward. My mother hit the wall. Tasha slid across the floor. Owen's arm shielded her from debris.
Declan and I froze inches apart.
Breathing each other's air.
His voice was a low, broken whisper.
"I can't control it."
My heart thundered.
"Then we'll find someone who can," I whispered back.
His eyes softened devastated, hopeful, terrified all at once.
"You still trust me?" he breathed.
I didn't answer.
Not because I didn't want to.
But because at that exact moment
The front door exploded inward.
Marcus stormed in, panting, bleeding from the shoulder.
And behind him
Dragged by its twisted, broken legs
Was the last wraith wolf.
Still alive.
Barely.
Its eyes locked onto me with a chilling focus.
Marcus tossed it to the floor like a corpse—but it wasn't a corpse.
It was a messenger.
Because carved into its chest were symbols.
Glowing red.
Dripping like molten embers.
Declan stiffened. "That's a summoning mark."
The wolf's head jerked unnaturally toward me.
And in a voice not its own
A voice layered with echoes, ancient and warped
It spoke.
"Bring me the girl with Alpha blood."
My blood turned to ice.
"What?" I whispered.
The creature twisted its head further bones snapping and pointed its snout directly at
Me.
"The rightful heir returns. The forbidden bloodline awakens."
Mom gasped.
Marcus cursed.
Declan went still as stone.
The wolf's mouth stretched in a gruesome grin.
"We will take her soon."
And then
Its body ignited.
Burning into ash.
Leaving only silence.
And the echo of a truth I wasn't ready for.
Alpha blood.
Forbidden blood.
My blood.
Everyone stared at me in horror.
Everyone except Declan.
He stepped toward me, voice low.
Almost reverent.
"Aria…
what the hell are you?".