Chapter 163
The room stayed silent after Lucien’s warning.
Ariana could feel the tension pressing against the walls of the house while Kael stood near the doorway, his expression dark enough to make even Ryder uneasy. Outside, wolves still lingered beyond the trees, watching and waiting for sothing none of them fully understood yet.
"If you stay in this territory tonight," Lucien said again, his voice calm but firm, "the council is going to start a war over you."
Kael’s jaw tightened imdiately. "That’s enough."
But Lucien did not back down.
His attention shifted toward Ariana again, and this ti she noticed sothing important in his expression.
He wasn’t looking at her with hatred.
He was looking at her like he already knew how dangerous the council could beco once fear took control of them.
"You ca all the way here just to threaten her?" Kael asked coldly.
Lucien finally looked back at him. "No. I ca because my sister is dying while the council is too busy protecting their authority to admit what actually happened."
The atmosphere inside the room tightened imdiately after that.
Ryder frowned slightly. "You really think the bond is collapsing on its own?"
Lucien let out a tired breath. "The bond should never have existed in the first place."
Ariana saw the exact mont those words hit Kael.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
"You knew," Kael said quietly.
Lucien held his gaze. "I suspected."
The silence that followed felt painfully real.
Ariana looked between them carefully, suddenly realizing sothing important.
"You two never t before," she said slowly.
Lucien’s expression shifted slightly at that.
"No," he answered calmly. "Not properly."
Kael crossed his arms tightly. "Mira made sure of that."
Ariana frowned. "What does that an?"
Lucien glanced toward Kael before answering. "I left the territory years before the bond ceremony."
Ryder looked surprised. "You abandoned the witch territory?"
Lucien’s expression hardened slightly. "I left because I was tired of watching the council turn people into obligations instead of choices."
The words settled heavily into the room.
Ariana imdiately understood why Kael looked tense now.
Not because Lucien was lying.
Because he wasn’t.
"She told everyone you refused to support the family," Kael said quietly.
Lucien laughed once under his breath. "That’s easier than admitting I told her not to force a bond on soone who didn’t want it."
The silence afterward felt suffocating.
Ariana slowly looked toward Kael again.
"You really tried to stop it?"
Lucien nodded once. "Mira believed the bond would eventually make him love her." His expression darkened slightly afterward. "I told her obsession and fate are not the sa thing."
Kael looked away briefly after that, tension moving visibly through his shoulders.
Ariana suddenly understood why Lucien’s arrival felt different from the council.
He wasn’t here defending Mira’s choices.
He was here because he already knew they had consequences.
Lucien stepped farther inside the house slowly, though the wolves outside imdiately reacted to the movent.
Kael noticed too.
"Careful," he said quietly.
Lucien glanced toward the clearing behind him. "Relax. Half the wolves outside already think I ca here to kill the Fifth Blood."
Ariana felt the tension in the room sharpen instantly after that.
Kael’s eyes darkened dangerously. "Try saying that again."
Lucien held his gaze steadily for several seconds before answering calmly.
"That reaction right there is exactly why the council is panicking."
Nobody spoke after that.
Because he was right.
Every instinct inside Kael had shifted the second Ariana beca part of the threat.
Not the bond. Not the territory.
Ariana.
Lucien looked toward her again, more serious now. "You need to understand sothing clearly."
Ariana crossed her arms tightly. "Everybody keeps saying that."
"Because nobody’s explained the important part yet."
The room fell quiet again.
Lucien’s expression hardened slightly before he continued.
"The Lycan should not exist anymore."
Kael’s jaw tightened imdiately.
"What are you talking about?" Ariana asked quietly.
Lucien looked toward Kael first, almost like he was deciding how much to reveal.
Then he answered.
"The original Lycans disappeared generations ago because their instincts beca too powerful to control through normal bonds." His gaze shifted back toward Ariana. "That’s why the councils created the Alpha-bond system in the first place."
A cold feeling settled in Ariana’s stomach.
"The bond wasn’t tradition," she realized quietly.
"No," Lucien answered. "It was containnt."
The silence afterward beca crushing.
Ryder stared at him in disbelief. "That’s impossible."
"It’s history," Lucien corrected.
Kael’s expression had gone completely unreadable now, but Ariana could feel the pressure surrounding him growing heavier again beneath his control.
"The Storm Wolf bloodline was one of the last traces of the original Lycans," Lucien continued carefully. "Most wolves believed the blood weakened over ti."
Ariana looked toward Kael slowly.
"But it didn’t."
Lucien held her gaze. "No. It slept."
The truth settled into the room like sothing ancient finally waking up.
Suddenly everything made sense.
The Lycan.
The instability.
The way Kael reacted to the forced bond.
The way the wolves feared him.
The way Ariana cald him without trying.
It was never just about the bond failing.
The Lycan itself was returning.
Kael finally spoke again, his voice lower now. "How do you know all this?"
Lucien’s expression darkened slightly. "Because Mira wasn’t the only one researching the old bloodlines."
Ariana frowned. "Mira knew?"
"She knew enough to beco obsessed," Lucien answered quietly.
The atmosphere inside the room shifted sharply again.
Kael stepped forward slowly. "What exactly did she know?"
Lucien hesitated for the first ti since arriving.
Then he looked directly at Ariana before answering.
"She believed the Fifth Blood could fully awaken the Lycan."
The silence afterward felt terrifying.
Ariana felt her heartbeat stutter painfully in her chest.
Kael went completely still beside her.
And outside the house, the wolves surrounding the clearing suddenly began to howl.
The sound rolled through the territory like a warning carried across the mountains, deep enough to shake the windows of the house. More howls answered from farther away, spreading rapidly through the forest as if the entire territory had sensed the shift at the sa mont.
And for the first ti, Ariana realized the wolves were not afraid of the bond breaking anymore.
They were afraid of what Kael was becoming.
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