Episode 3 – Blood Oath
By Speciallymade
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Blood had a scent. Aria knew that now.
Not the coppery tang she'd read about in books, but something raw and intimate. It was a scent that lingered in the back of her throat after the kill—a smell that made her stomach twist and her chest tighten.
She had shifted. She had hunted. She had killed.
And she had survived.
But nothing about it felt heroic. No one clapped. No one cheered.
Because surviving meant something else had died.
---
"Breathe," Lucien said.
They were in the woods again, not far from the clearing where she'd first seen him. He was barefoot, his black hoodie thrown over a mossy log, his chest still bearing the claw marks from their last fight.
"I am breathing," Aria snapped.
"Then stop shaking."
She glanced down at her trembling hands. "Easy for you to say. You were born into this."
Lucien tilted his head. "So were you. You just didn't know it."
She sat down hard on a stone. "I don't know who I am anymore."
Lucien crouched beside her, his eyes softer now. "You're Aria Blackwood. You're Moonborn. And whether you like it or not, you're one of us."
"Us?" she echoed.
He nodded. "The Pack."
---
Aria's thoughts were still spinning as she walked home. The Pack. He said they lived in the forest's deeper edges, in abandoned cottages and hidden trails where no humans dared go.
He said she needed to meet the Alpha.
And she had two days to decide.
Two days until the next full moon.
---
That night, Aria sat on the roof again. The stars were clearer now, as if the night itself knew she had changed. She heard Maeve climb up behind her.
"You look like someone just gave you a deadline to survive."
Aria snorted. "That's… weirdly accurate."
Maeve sat beside her. "You're shifting again soon, right?"
"Lucien said it'll be stronger this time. He wants me to meet the Alpha. Join the Pack."
Maeve was quiet. "Are you going to?"
"I don't know." Aria hugged her knees. "Part of me wants to. The other part wants to run as far from this as possible."
Maeve's gaze didn't waver. "Then maybe ask yourself which part feels more you."
---
Two days later, Aria stood in front of the old bridge at the edge of Graywood Forest.
Lucien was waiting. Behind him, six others emerged from the trees—young men and women, all wolf-blooded, all watching her with unreadable expressions.
"This is the trial?" she asked, her voice steady even though her heart wasn't.
Lucien nodded. "To join the Pack, you must make the Blood Oath. Speak the truth. Pass the test."
"What's the test?"
He looked at her for a long moment. "You face your fear."
Before she could ask what that meant, the ground shifted beneath her feet—and she fell.
---
She hit water hard. Cold and dark.
She flailed, gasping, breaking the surface to find herself in a deep underground cave. Only faint torchlight flickered across the stone walls.
She wasn't alone.
Something else was breathing in the shadows.
---
"Hello?" she called out, voice echoing.
A shape moved. Not a person. Not a wolf.
A memory.
Suddenly, she wasn't in the cave anymore.
She was standing in her old house—five years ago. Her father stood at the doorway, the same way she last saw him.
Aria blinked. "Dad?"
He looked at her, smiling. "Why did you follow me into the woods that night, Aria?"
She froze.
"You saw what I was," he continued, voice lowering. "You saw me change. And you ran. That's why I had to leave."
Tears burned her eyes. "You left because of me?"
"No." His smile vanished. "I left because I was afraid of what you would become."
The vision shattered.
---
She was back in the cave, chest heaving.
A whisper echoed in her ears.
> "The curse is not your fear. It's your denial of it."
Aria stood, fists clenched. "I'm not afraid of what I am."
The whisper grew louder.
> "Then prove it."
---
When she emerged from the trial pool, the Pack was waiting.
Lucien helped her up, wrapping his hoodie around her soaked frame.
"You faced him?" he asked.
Aria nodded, teeth chattering. "He said he left because he was afraid of what I'd become."
Lucien's jaw tightened. "Then he was a fool."
The Alpha stepped forward.
He was taller than Lucien, older, silver-haired but powerfully built. His eyes were deep gold—wise, patient, unflinching.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked Aria.
"No," she said honestly.
"I am Aldric Thorn. I led your father when he was one of us. And I will lead you—if you're ready."
Aria met his gaze. "Then I am."
He raised a blade and handed it to her.
"Make the oath."
Aria cut her palm, the blood welling fast. She stepped forward and pressed her hand to the crescent-shaped stone altar in the center of the circle.
"I am Aria Blackwood," she said loudly. "Daughter of the lost line. I claim my birthright and my burden. By blood, I join the Pack."
The stone glowed beneath her touch.
And the forest howled in approval.
---
The moon rose full and bright the next night.
Lucien stayed beside her as the change came.
The pain was different this time. Less like breaking, more like becoming. Her bones still shifted, her skin still burned—but she was in control.
She didn't lose herself.
She embraced herself.
And when she looked at Lucien in his wolf form—midnight black, eyes glowing like embers—she knew they were no longer strangers.
They were kin.
---
The Pack ran together that night.
Seven wolves, silver and black and brown, tore through the woods in silent rhythm.
Aria ran with them.
And for the first time in her life, she felt whole.
---
But peace never lasts.
And war doesn't wait.
---
They returned to find smoke rising in the distance.
Maeve's house.
Aria shifted back instantly, not even stopping to catch her breath.
She sprinted through the woods, naked, barefoot, branches cutting into her skin.
But she didn't feel them.
She only felt fear.
And fury.
---
The house was burning.
People gathered outside—neighbors, firemen, screaming, hoses spraying.
Maeve lay on the grass, bloodied, unconscious. A burn ran down her arm. Her eyes fluttered open when Aria dropped beside her.
"Who did this?" Aria gasped.
Maeve coughed. "One of them… red eyes. Said… said you would bring the fall."
Lucien knelt beside them, jaw tight. "It was a warning."
"No," Aria said, standing. "It was a declaration."
She turned, eyes burning gold now.
"They want a war?"
Lucien stepped beside her. "Then we'll give them one."
---
That night, she stood at the edge of the forest with the Pack behind her and fire in her heart.
"I'm done running," she said.
Lucien smiled. "Then let's show them what a Blackwood really is."
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TO BE CONTINUED…