POV Kiara
Those two words sent shock waves through my entire system. Every muscle in my body is coiling with recognition and rage.
I spun around, silver blades already singing through the air, but Aleron materialized from the shadows like liquid darkness, catching my wrist with inhuman speed.
The years had sharpened him into something lethal. He was as beautiful as I remebered—that was the sickening part. Still looked like the lost boy Father had rescued, except now that beauty felt like a blade pressed against my throat.
Aleron was a head over me tall, more muscular than a lean boy from the past, his black hair fell in waves framing his face. The same devastating cheekbones, the same full mouth that had once smiled for me. But his eyes—Goddess, his eyes were different.
Where once they'd held warmth, even innocence, now they burned with cold fire. Pale green like winter frost, and absolutely merciless.
"Predictable as always," he said, that infuriating smirk playing across his lips. "Did you really think I wouldn't know you'd come here?"
"You bastard!" I snarled, wrenching my arm free and slashing at his throat.
But Aleron flowed backward like smoke, my blade passing harmlessly through the space where his neck had been a heartbeat before.
"Everything's a trap when you're thinking three moves ahead, love."
Thomen materialized at my left flank, his weapon gleaming as he moved to cut off Aleron's escape route.
"Enough games, Lucroy. Time to pay for what you did."
"Thomen Coulburg," Aleron's pale eyes glittered with dark amusement. "Still playing the loyal puppy, I see. Tell me, do you still have nightmares about your dead brothers?"
The taunt hit its mark. Thomen lunged forward with a roar of fury, but Aleron simply stepped sideways, his form blurring with supernatural speed. When he reappeared, he was behind us both, close enough that I could feel his breath on my neck.
"You killed him!" I whirled around, claws extending as my wolf side surged to the surface. "You killed my father after he treated you like a son!"
"Is that what you think?" Aleron deflected my claws with fluid grace, his movements impossibly elegant even in combat. "That I simply woke up one morning and decided to destroy everything?"
"What else is there to think?" I pressed my attack, moving in perfect synchronization with Thomen as our mate bond allowed us to fight as one organism. "You led vampires to our sanctuary. You stood there and watched as they slaughtered our people!"
"There are things you don't understand, Kiara." Aleron spun away from Thomen's strike, his form shifting between solid flesh and shadow. "Things I couldn't tell you then, and things you're not ready to hear now."
"Try me!" I screamed, fury making my vision blur red at the edges. "Try explaining why the boy my father saved became the monster who murdered him!"
"Your father—" Aleron began, then stopped abruptly as Thomen's blade nearly found its mark.
"Don't you dare speak about him," Thomen growled, blood trickling from where Aleron's counterattack had grazed his cheek. "You lost the right to say his name the night you betrayed us all."
"Oh, really?" Aleron's voice dropped to something almost resembling pain. "Or did I save more lives than you'll ever know?"
"Riddles and lies," I spat, coordinating another assault with Thomen.
Our movements flowed together like a deadly dance, honed by years of training and our connection as true mates.
"The truth is rarely simple, Kiara," Aleron said, managing to stay just out of reach of our combined attacks. "And some truths are too dangerous to speak aloud."
"What truth could possibly justify genocide?" Thomen demanded, his blade whistling through the air where Aleron's head had been moments before.
"The truth about what was coming," Aleron replied cryptically.
Before I could demand a clearer answer, two more figures stepped out of the shadows—vampires.
"Aleron," one of them hissed, "we don't have time for this."
"Helena, Damien," Aleron acknowledged without taking his eyes off me. "Perfect timing, as always."
The odds shifted instantly.
Two against one had been challenging enough with Aleron's abilities. Two against three was going to be a bloodbath.
"Kiara, left flank!" Thomen shouted, immediately engaging the vampire called Damien.
I spun to face Helena, but she moved with liquid grace that made Aleron look slow by comparison. Her blade raked across my shoulder before I could fully turn, and I bit back a scream of pain.
"Fresh werewolf blood," Helena purred, licking my blood from her dagger. "How delightful."
"Enjoy it while you can," I snarled, ignoring the burning pain as I pressed my attack.
Behind me, I could hear Thomen grunting with effort as he battled Damien, their weapons clanging together in rapid succession.
The sound of our coordinated fighting filled the abandoned space, but the vampires' speed was making this fight increasingly desperate.
"Thomen!" I screamed as Helena's blade barely missed my throat.
I heard him curse, then the sickening sound of flesh being torn. A silver-laced strike from Damien had found its mark, opening a gash across Thomen's shoulder that immediately began bleeding heavily.
"Is that the best you can do?" Thomen growled through gritted teeth, but I could hear the pain in his voice.
Damien's response was a vicious backhand that split Thomen's eyebrow open, sending blood streaming down his face. "I'm just getting started."
The sight of my mate wounded, of his blood painting his face, ignited something primal and furious deep in my chest. My protective instincts exploded past all reason and strategy.
"Get away from him!" I roared, abandoning my fight with Helena to launch myself at Damien.
My claws found their mark this time, raking deep furrows across the vampire's chest before he could dodge. He staggered backward with a hiss of pain and surprise.
"Protective Alpha," Helena laughed, but there was wariness in her voice now.
In the distance, howls began echoing through the night—deep, mournful calls that meant our packmates had heard the sounds of battle and were coming fast.
Aleron's expression shifted immediately, something almost regretful flickering across his features. "Time to go."
"This isn't over, Lucroy," Thomen snarled, blood still streaming from his wounds as he pressed a hand to his torn shoulder.
"No," Aleron agreed, his gaze lingering on me with an intensity that made my skin crawl with unwanted recognition. "It's barely begun."
His pale eyes held something that looked almost like longing, something that reminded me disturbingly of the boy who used to sneak me extra dessert when Father wasn't looking.
"Until next time, love," he murmured.
The endearment sent shivers down my spine that I refused to acknowledge. Before I could respond, before I could demand real answers instead of cryptic warnings, he melted back into the shadows with his companions.
One moment they were there, solid and threatening, and the next they were gone like smoke, leaving nothing but the lingering scent of vampire and old secrets.
I dropped to my knees beside Thomen, my hands immediately moving to assess his injuries. "How bad is it?"
"I'll live," he said grimly, but his face was pale from blood loss. "The shoulder needs stitches, but the eyebrow's just a flesh wound."
As I pressed my hands against his torn shoulder to slow the bleeding, questions burned in my mind.
Questions about the haunting familiarity in Aleron's eyes when he'd called me ‘love’. Questions about what truths he claimed I wasn't ready to hear.
And most disturbing of all, questions about why part of me had wanted to believe him.