Chapter 37 : Old Bonds, Older Wounds
Aria slept, breathing softly against Kael’s chest, the violent glow of her awakening reduced to a faint shimmer beneath her skin. Rowan sat on the far side of the room, elbows braced on his knees, staring at the floor as if trying to gather the pieces of himself. Cassian stood by the window, watching the treeline with a soldier’s tension, waiting for the world to break again.
Kael stroked a hand down Aria’s spine, grounding himself in the rhythm of her breath. Only when her body finally went slack with real sleep did he look up.
“Tell me what happened,” he said quietly.
Rowan lifted his head. Shadows clung to his expression. “She went into a trance. I barely caught her before she bolted into the forest again. And then something—someone—pushed through the veil.”
Kael’s jaw tightened. “Lucien.”
Rowan flinched at the name. “So it’s true. Her brother.”
Cassian swore under his breath. “Raised by Ironclaw, shaped by Frost, trained by the Priests… He’s not a brother. He’s a weapon.”
Rowan exhaled slowly. “Which means he’s exactly what they’ll use to bring her down.”
Kael looked at Aria’s sleeping form, his chest twisting. “Not while I live.”
Silence pulsed between the three men. Heavy. Unspoken. Weighted with old history they had never dared speak aloud in her presence.
Cassian pushed off the wall, arms crossing. “We knew this day would come. The moment she awakened, every player in the Dominion would start to move. Orion. Veyra. The High Council. Even the Priests.”
Rowan nodded faintly. “And Lucien.”
Kael felt Rowan’s eyes on him — searching, hesitant, almost wounded. Kael met his gaze steadily.
“You’ve been waiting for me to ask,” Kael murmured.
Rowan swallowed. “Yes.”
Kael held the silence for a breath — then finally spoke the truth Aria had never been told.
“She didn’t fall into your life by chance. I placed you there.”
Rowan let out a hollow laugh. “And for years, she thought she found me.”
Cassian looked between them, jaw tight. “You’re both avoiding the actual point.”
Rowan’s voice sharpened. “Which is?”
“That the three of us are bound to her,” Cassian said. “Not just now — since the beginning.”
Rowan’s expression darkened. “Then say it. Say it so we don’t keep dragging this truth like a chain.”
Kael stood slowly, lifting Aria into his arms with surprising gentleness. He laid her properly on the bed, tucking a blanket around her before facing the other two men.
“When the Moonblood Massacre happened, Cassian and I were there.”
Rowan’s breath hitched.
Kael continued. “We were both young, but old enough to follow orders. Old enough to kill.”
Cassian’s jaw clenched. “Old enough to realise halfway through that the order was wrong.”
Kael nodded. “Aria’s mother — Queen Selara — didn’t trust the Council. She sensed betrayal coming. So she made a plan.”
Rowan whispered, “The sealing spell.”
“Yes,” Cassian confirmed. “She bound Aria’s wolf, sealed her memories, and instructed a child from our pack to carry her into the human realm.”
Rowan’s eyes lowered. “Me.”
Kael’s gaze softened. “Your mother owed Selara a blood favour. You were the only one the wards would accept.”
Rowan’s voice cracked. “I was a child.”
“You were loyal,” Kael said. “That’s rarer.”
Cassian’s expression grew sombre. “Meanwhile, Kael and I—”
“—were ordered to burn the rest of the estate,” Kael finished.
Rowan went still.
Kael didn’t look away. He deserved the accusation. He deserved the weight of Rowan’s glare.
“We never knew a child survived,” Kael said. “We thought the massacre claimed them all.”
Rowan stared at him, anger and grief warring in his eyes. “And when did you learn otherwise?”
“Years later,” Kael replied quietly. “When Elder Selene found me and said the Lost Luna lived. She told me she had been hidden in the human world — protected by a bond even the Priests couldn’t sense.”
Rowan’s breath caught. “The bond between you two.”
Kael nodded once. “I didn’t know her name. I didn’t know her face. But I felt her. A presence on the edge of my senses — faint, stubborn, alive.”
Rowan’s throat tightened. “That’s why you sent me.”
“Yes,” Kael murmured. “I sent you to watch her. Protect her. Hide her. And if the time ever came—bring her home.”
Cassian added, “And when Rowan didn’t know what to do, he wrote to us. That’s why we tracked her scent last night. That’s why Kael felt her collapse.”
Rowan looked at them both, voice low. “I thought I was doing enough. I thought keeping her hidden was enough.”
Kael shook his head. “You saved her life. More than once.”
“But you’re still the mate,” Rowan said bitterly. “You’re the one who can reach her. You’re the one she—”
He stopped, unable to finish.
The silence that followed was jagged.
Cassian exhaled. “We’re fighting the same war. For the same girl. Against the same enemy.”
Rowan finally sank back against the wall. “And Lucien is the greatest threat.”
Kael ran a hand through his hair, exhaustion weighing on him. “Yes. Because he isn’t just her brother.”
Rowan’s eyes sharpened. “What else is he?”
Cassian answered softly. “He is the last male heir of the Moonblood line besides Kael.”
Rowan froze.
Kael’s expression hardened. “Which means the Council sees him as the rightful ruler of the Dominion… if Aria stays hidden.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Rowan whispered.
Kael’s jaw flexed. “If she rises — she replaces the entire system.”
Cassian glanced toward the window. “And that is why every faction will come for her when she turns twenty-one.”
Kael went still.
Rowan saw it instantly. “What do you feel?”
Kael’s eyes snapped toward the door. “Lucien.”
Cassian stiffened. “Close?”
Kael shook his head slowly. “He lost her… but he’s still near. And now he knows he’s not just hunting a rumour.”
Rowan swallowed. “He’s hunting his blood.”
Kael’s eyes glowed faint gold. “Then we protect her with ours.”
Rowan finally nodded.
Cassian cracked his knuckles. “About time.”
Kael stepped to the foot of Aria’s bed, standing guard.
He didn’t look back at the others when he spoke, but the air shifted with the weight of the vow.
“No more secrets between us. No more half-truths. No more hesitation.”
His gaze burned like a rising dawn.
“From tonight onward, the three of us stand as the shield between her and the Dominion.”
And outside, in the shadows beyond the wards, the forest listened—
—while a brother sharpened his rage into purpose.