Chapter 6 A Choice That Wasn’t One
(Aria POV – refined)
They didn’t summon her this time.
That alone unsettled Aria more than the Council chamber ever had.
A guard arrived at her door just after dusk, posture formal, eyes fixed somewhere just over her shoulder as if looking at her directly was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.
“The Alpha King requests your presence,” he said.
Not commands.
Just a request.
As if that distinction mattered.
Aria pulled her cloak tighter around herself before following him through the torchlit corridors. Whispers slid along the stone walls as they passed—soft, cautious, unfinished. She felt them like fingers at her back.
They’re afraid, her thoughts whispered.
Not of what I’ve done.
Of what I might be.
Roman was waiting in the smaller war chamber this time, not the council hall. Maps covered the table again, but they’d been rearranged—markers shifted, borders circled in red ink. He looked up when she entered, his expression closing into something careful.
Not cold.
Measured.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing to the chair opposite him.
She did. Slowly. Ready to bolt if she had to, even though she knew there was nowhere to run.
“You’ve heard the whispers,” Roman said.
It wasn’t a question.
Aria nodded. “They’re saying I brought danger with me.”
“They’re right,” he replied calmly. “Just not in the way they think.”
Her hands curled in her lap. “What do you mean?”
Roman studied her for a long moment, as if weighing how much truth she could survive.
“Word of the Lost Luna is spreading,” he said finally. “Faster than I’d hoped. Faster than we can contain.”
Her stomach tightened. “Who knows?”
“Enough that it matters,” he said. “Some believe you should be used. Others believe killing you now would prevent what’s coming. A third group fears that someone else will come for you first.”
Her breath came shallow. “Someone else.”
“Yes.”
She swallowed. “Who?”
Roman didn’t answer directly. “The last time the Blood Moon rose like this, it didn’t stay confined to one territory. Wolves moved. Packs fractured. Old enemies resurfaced.”
“You think it’ll happen again,” she said.
“I think it already has.”
Silence stretched between them.
"So now comes your mystery..who are you really? obviously everything you knew so far has been a lie, but why?"
Aria spoke quietly. “You said my parents weren’t my parents.”
Roman’s gaze sharpened. “I said the people you named were not your blood.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He leaned back slightly. “You want answers.”
“I want the truth,” she said, her voice trembling despite her effort to steady it. “Because everything I thought I knew just… fell apart.”
Roman nodded once, as if acknowledging something inevitable. “Then we need to go to the village where you were raised.”
Her heart skipped. “Why?”
“Because whoever protected you knew more than they were allowed to say,” he replied. “And because the woman you call your aunt has been silent for too long.”
Fear flared instantly. “You want to interrogate her.”
“No,” Roman said sharply. Then, more carefully, “I want to ask her questions before someone else does.”
Aria pushed to her feet. “You can’t just drag her into this. She’s innocent. She’s done nothing wrong.”
“I know,” he said.
That stopped her.
“You know?” she echoed.
“She was trusted by the warriors who died protecting you,” Roman said. “She was never meant to raise you alone.”
Aria’s chest ached. “Then why did she?”
Roman stood as well, closing the distance between them—not threateningly, but with the weight of a truth that refused to stay distant.
“Because someone told her to,” he said quietly.
Her breath hitched. “Who?”
He didn’t say anything.
He truly did not know.
The air felt heavier between them, as if the answer pressed in from all sides.
Aria shook her head. “You’re asking me to go back there knowing this.”
“I’m asking you for permission,” Roman corrected.
She laughed, brittle and humorless. “That’s generous of you.”
His eyes held hers. “You could refuse.”
They both knew it wasn’t true.
Not really.
“And if I do?” she asked.
“Then I will still send guards,” he said evenly. “Because if the truth doesn’t come from her willingly, someone else will take it from her—and I’m certain you don’t want her hurt.”
Her shoulders slumped.
There it was.
The choice that wasn’t one.
She looked away, staring at the map as if it could tell her who she was supposed to be. “What if I don’t like what I find out?”
Roman’s voice softened, just slightly. “You still deserve to know. And we need to know what we’re dealing with.”
That made her look back at him.
Curiosity burned through her fear, hot and unavoidable. The questions clawed at her chest, sharper than the danger.
Who am I?
Who protected me?
Why me?
Aria exhaled slowly. “I want to go with you.”
Roman nodded. “You will be covered. Your markings won’t be visible.”
“And if people recognize me?”
“They won’t,” he said. “I’ll have our most trusted witch place a cloaking spell on you. Only my people—and your aunt—will see you as you are.”
That should have frightened her.
Instead, it grounded her.
“When?” she asked.
“Tonight,” Roman replied. “Before anyone else decides to move.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“Okay,” she said.
Not because she trusted him.
Not because she felt safe.
But because the lie she’d been living in was already dead.
And whatever waited at her aunt’s house…
It was part of the truth.
