The Alpha's Eyes
Chapter 4:
The hoofs were becoming louder. The banners rustled like the wings of the shadow in the wind, and the moonlight fell on the ends of the spears and the helmets.
Aria stood unmoving, her hands bloody and shaking, the Rune still softly pulsating against her back. Kael was breathing close at hand—low, regular, cautious. She was not sure what to do, to run or to fight. Her transformed and scarred body did not bend.
Lucien first dismounted. The night-breath of the horse was like smoke as the Alpha King approached her, and every inch of his great figure was covered with dark armor. The woods about them stood still. Not a breath of wind came through the trees.
Kael came forward.
“I will not have you have her,” he said, and he was more beast than man in the tones of his voice.
The eyes of Lucien did not even swivel to Kael. They had their eyes fastened on Aria.
“What did you do?” Lucien said in a low voice, hollowed with awe or fright Aria could not guess which. “Aria?”
“I didn't do it,” she answered. She did not sound like herself. “The Moon made its choice.”
The jaw of Lucien set. His warriors were behind him and were looking at each other. They had observed the Rune. They had heard the quake of the earth. The blood, supposed to be dead, to be extinct, had just risen up and contended in the snow.
One of the warriors muttered, “She is Moon-Blessed. No, that cannot be…”
Lucien tossed his head and shut them up by a glance. Then he moved nearer. Too close.
Kael growled, and his hand half went to his blade, but Aria raised her arm and pulled him back.
Said she, “Let him speak.”
Lucien examined her. “You do not appear as the girl I passed up.”
“Perhaps it is owing to the fact that I am not her any longer.”
Silence.
“Why do you go here?” The tension was cut by Kael. “She does not belong to you anymore.”
The eyes of Lucien never quit Aria. “I arrived because I had a feeling. The Moon calls. Something old was awakening tonight, and I mused... I believed it was my turn.”
Aria made a rueful gesture. “You always thought all was yours.”
Lucien looked aside, a little shame flickering. Then he made a second attempt.
“Aria, come back.”
The words crashed against her as though they were ice. Kael stood rigid at her side.
“You refused me,” she said simply. “Thou jeered at me. You selected Talia.”
The voice of Lucien fell. “That was when I did not know.”
“I had a value before you knew it,” she flashed back at him angrily. “And it was not because I was kind. Not on account of my loyalty. Not that I was a slave to your pack. However, now I am strong. I am now unusual.”
“I was wrong.”
She smiled sarcastically. “It was the error of thinking I should ever want you again.”
Now Kael moved forward. “You heard her. Leave.”
Still Lucien did not stir. “I came to recapture her. To make amends of what I did. You cannot keep her safe from everything, stranger.”
Kael said very calmly, “I am not protecting her. I am standing next to her. It is a difference.”
The words made a deep impression in Aria. Lucien blinked, evidently not at all anticipating that.
“But it is no use living in exile,” Lucien returned to her. “Other people will soon follow. Other Alphas. Other packs. They will seek you out not in love, not because they want you, no, out of fear of you or because they want the blood in your veins.”
“And what?” said Aria coldly. “Wilt thou be my defence?”
Lucien contributed, “I can be. I will put this in order. Be thou my Luna.”
“No,” she said.
Lucien drew his eyes together. “Why not?”
She said, “Because I am not your second chance. I will start by myself.”
Nobody said anything just then. The breeze started blowing again, and it touched her hair, pushing it away out of the face.
Kael got nearer, not to protect her, but to stand beside her, shoulder to shoulder.
Lucien gazed at them, and something inexpressible in his face.
“Well then,” said he, “this is war.”
Aria shook her head. “This is evolution.”
Lucien turned. And without another word, he mounted his horse and went away into the shadows. His other warriors came behind him one way or another, some in silence, some stealing, looking back at Aria. One even bent his head. And then they were away.
When they awoke the next morning, the snow had melted around the cave. Kael was again sharpening his blade. Aria sat huddling over the fire and pulling the hood of her cloak over her shoulders.
“Then what?” she asked.
“Oh, you came out,” Kael answered. “You’re marked. They will come back.”
“I am too young.”
He gazed at her. “Then make it ready.”
Aria looked to the Rune upon her back. It was already no longer glowing white; it was but a dim silver shimmer but it was there. A constant. A truth.
She said, as she looked at him, “I saw her in my dreams. The Moon Goddess. She told me I am not broken in power, I am in hiding.”
Kael nodded his head slowly. “I heard of dreams of that kind. The Moon addresses her elect in visions.”
“She would like to learn,” she said. “It is not only the way to fight. I would like to understand what this implies. What I am.”
Kael stood. “And then we go.”
She blinked. “Where?”
“In some places Moon-Blessed used to be trained. Hidden sanctuaries. Forbidden woods. The ruins of ancient life. We shall get one.”
“You are going to come with me?”
“Ye suppose I would send thee forth to war with merely a fire-mark on thy brow?”
She gave a little laugh. “It is not a tattoo.”
“I know. A forewarning to your foes.”
She arose very slowly, and her body was no longer broken, only bruised.
“Then, who I am becoming, we will learn.”
Kael nodded. “Yet there is this thing to understand first.”
“What?”
“There are other Moon-Blesses.”
Aria froze. “What?”
He gazed towards the forests. “Others exist. Scattered. Hiding. Others are preyed upon. Others are chained. Moon does not select a single person… but you could be the first one to wake up.”
Her heart beat. “So I am not alone.”
“No,” said Kael quietly. “But you, perhaps, may be the only one who is willing to fight.”
When they came out of the cave into the woods, the dawn was breaking on the trees, which were covered with snow. Far away the wind was howling but howling not of foes. Something deeper. Something older. Something waiting.
Aria did not know what was going to happen. But she would stand it.
Not an Omega.
Being the Moon Blessed.