Chapter 17 The Echo of a Shadow
The moon hung like a sliver of ice in the sky, casting long, bony shadows across the Obsidian Pack’s training grounds. It had been six months since the Syndicate mine fell six months since I traded my daggers for a crown. But tonight, the air felt thick and heavy, like the pull of a storm just before the lightning cracks.
I couldn't sleep. My wolf was pacing under my skin, her fur bristling. I’d left Cassian in our bed, his arm still resting on the spot where I should have been. I needed the bite of the cold. I needed the silence.
"Brooding again, Aria?"
I didn't need to look back to know it was Kael. The Beta had become a weird kind of friend the type who has your back but never lets you forget where you started. He stepped out from the shadows of the armory, absentmindedly rubbing a whetstone
"Just thinking," I said, staring at the dark line of the trees.
"Thinking about the past, or the person hiding in the bushes fifty yards out?" Kael’s voice dropped into a low, dangerous growl.
My blood turned to ice. I hadn't even sensed them. My instincts, once so sharp I could feel a flea jump, had gone soft from the warmth of the palace. I reached for the small blade tucked at the small of my back a habit I could never quite shake.
"Stay back," I whispered.
I moved toward the treeline, my heart thudding a steady warning. A figure stumbled out into the moonlight. It wasn't a soldier. It was a woman, her clothes torn to rags and her face covered in fresh scars. She looked like a ghost of the girl I used to be.
"Aria," she rasped, tripping forward. "They… they didn't all die in the mine."
"Sloane?" I breathed, recognizing the girl I’d trained with in the Syndicate’s pits. "I thought you were dead."
"The Director escaped," she gasped, clutching a bloody wound in her side. "He’s rebuilding. He has a new weapon, Aria. Something called 'Eclipse.' He’s coming for the boy. He’s coming for Leo."
Before I could reach her, a sharp whistle cut through the night. A silver bolt just like the ones from the mine shot from the dark and buried itself in Sloane’s chest. She fell without a sound, her eyes wide and empty.
"Ambush!" Kael roared.
Suddenly, the night exploded with the muffled pop of gunfire and the thud of boots. My training took over. I didn't think; I just moved. I tackled Sloane’s body behind a stone pillar just as a second bolt hissed past my ear.
"Kael, get the guards! Wake the Alpha!" I yelled.
I didn't wait for him. I knew where they were going. They weren't here for the walls; they were here for the family. My mind flashed to Leo, sleeping in his room, and Cassian, vulnerable in our bed.
I ran. I was a blur of blue silk and cold steel. I hit the back stairs of the royal wing just as three men in tactical gear smashed through the window. I didn't give them a chance to aim. I lunged into the first man, my dagger finding the gap under his helmet. I twisted, using his body as a shield as the other two started firing.
The hallway turned into a cloud of stone dust and wood splinters.
"Get away from my door!" a voice thundered.
The bedroom door flew off its hinges. Cassian stood there, bare-chested and feral. He didn't have a sword, but he didn't need one. He shifted mid-air, turning into a massive black wolf with burning gold eyes. He slammed into the remaining assassins, the sound of breaking bone echoing down the hall.
In seconds, it was over. The assassins were nothing but piles of broken gear and blood.
Cassian shifted back, his chest heaving and his skin wet with the sweat of a forced change. He didn't look at the bodies. He looked at me. He saw the blood on my dress and the wild look in my eyes.
"Aria," he choked out, rushing to me. He grabbed my shoulders, his hands frantic as he checked for wounds. "Are you hurt? Where is Leo?"
"I’m fine," I gasped, leaning into his warmth. "Leo is safe. Kael is at the perimeter. But Cassian… Sloane came back. She said the Director is alive. He’s building something called the Eclipse."
Cassian’s face went stone-cold. He pulled me into his arms, crushing me against him. I could feel his muscles shaking the raw, basic fear of a male who had almost lost his mate again. He buried his face in my hair, his breath shaky.
"They will never touch you again," he promised, his voice vibrating with a dark, terrifying heat. "I will turn this world into a graveyard before I let them near this house."
I pulled back to look into his eyes. The romance of the coronation was gone, replaced by the grim truth of a war that hadn't ended. I reached up and cupped his face, my thumb tracing his jaw.
"We aren't hiding anymore, Cassian," I said, my voice as sharp as my blade. "We’re the Alphas of the North. If he’s coming, let him come. We’ll show him what happens when you hunt the shadows."
Cassian leaned down, his lips meeting mine in a kiss that tasted of iron and forever. It wasn't a kiss of peace. It was a kiss of war. He tasted the blood on my lip and growled, his hands sliding down to grip my waist, marking me as his in the middle of the mess.
"Tonight, we hunt," he whispered against my mouth.
Outside, the pack began to howl a thousand wolves ready for blood. The Syndicate had tried to take my heart, then my soul. Now, they had come for my home.
They were about to find out that a Shadow Wolf with a pack is the most dangerous thing on earth.