You're Not Human Anymore

Aria's POV

The creature lunged — and time shattered.

I didn't scream.

I couldn't.

There was no breath in my lungs, no sound in my throat, just the sickening slam of my heart as I stared into those eyes — ember-red, burning like coal.

My feet refused to move.

My body knew fear, but something deeper surged beneath it — older than instinct, older than logic.

Mine.

That word echoed in my bones. Not from the creature. Not from Lucien.

From me.

⸻

He came out of nowhere — a blur of black fur and silver fangs — slamming into the creature mid-air. The force of impact shook the ground.

Lucien.

My wolf.

His massive frame crashed into the beast with such fury I thought the trees themselves might fall. They rolled in the dirt, snapping jaws, claws raking, snarls and roars tearing the night open like paper.

But the creature — the thing — wasn't just brute strength.

It twisted, shifted, reshaped itself. Its limbs cracked and stretched into unnatural lengths, its mouth unhinging like a snake's, dripping something viscous and dark.

Lucien growled and lunged again, but this time the beast was ready. It slammed him back with a swipe of its clawed hand, and Lucien hit the ground hard, stunned.

"No!" I screamed, my voice raw.

The creature turned toward me, grinning with teeth that didn't belong in any world.

It spoke my name again — a whisper, a curse, a claim.

"Aria…"

⸻

Something broke open inside me.

Not just fear.

Not just rage.

But something deeper. Wilder.

Hot light flared behind my eyes, and for a moment the world turned white.

The bond between Lucien and me snapped taut like a whip — not pain, but power. Pure, molten, searing. And it wanted out.

I screamed.

Not from terror — from the fire inside.

My hands trembled, the dagger shaking in my grip. I didn't know what I was doing — only that I had to protect him, had to end this thing before it touched him again.

And then…

It moved.

So did I.

⸻

Later, I wouldn't remember every detail.

Just flashes.

Steel meeting flesh.

A pulse of heat.

A roar that wasn't mine, but echoed through me like I'd made it.

The creature reeled back, hissing in pain as the silver blade cut across its chest — a clean, deep wound that sizzled where metal met tainted blood.

Its eyes widened. Not in rage.

In recognition.

"You…" it hissed.

Then it was gone — smoke, shadow, dissolving into the wind like it had never been there at all.

I collapsed to my knees, panting, still gripping the blood-wet dagger.

Lucien shifted back seconds later, stumbling toward me, eyes wide and wild.

"Aria…"

I reached for him without thinking, both of us falling into each other like we'd been broken and were only whole in the same space.

⸻

He cradled me against his chest, heart hammering hard enough I could feel it against my ribs.

"I thought—" he whispered, voice rough. "I thought I'd lost you."

I looked up at him, vision swimming. "You almost did."

He pressed his forehead to mine. "I should've never let you out here alone."

"I wasn't alone."

I touched my chest where the bond pulsed like a second heartbeat.

"You were with me. Always."

He kissed me then.

Not soft. Not sweet.

But desperate and real and ours.

The kiss tasted like ash and blood and fear and fire.

And I wanted all of it.

⸻

Later, the pack gathered.

There were murmurs, stolen glances, words like shift-blood and awakening tossed between warriors.

I didn't understand most of it.

But I understood this:

They looked at me differently now.

Not just as the Alpha's human.

But as something more.

Something becoming.

⸻

Lucien stood beside me as Caleb debriefed the perimeter scouts.

"Whatever that thing was," he said grimly, "it wasn't fully wolf. But it's connected to Thorne."

"And it knew Aria," someone added.

Lucien's expression darkened. "Then we protect her. We fortify the estate. And we find out what he wants."

I touched his hand beneath the table. He didn't flinch. Didn't pull away.

His fingers tightened around mine.

Then I spoke — my voice clear, even as my stomach twisted.

"Whatever he wants… he won't get it. Not without a war."

⸻

That night, I stood in front of the mirror in the dark.

Lucien was asleep in the bed behind me, his breaths slow, even.

I watched my reflection — studied the flicker of silver in my eyes, the faint glow that hadn't been there days ago.

And I whispered to the girl in the mirror:

"You're not just human anymore."

Then I turned off the light.

And let the bond guide me back to him.