The freezing wind brought by the shadow claws whipped against Aria’s face, reeking of death and stale blood. Her survival instincts took over. Instead of freezing, Aria instinctively threw both hands up to shield her face and neck.
The shadowy black talons slashed across Aria’s right arm. A burning pain instantly flared through her skin, tearing the black silk of her wedding gown and slicing into her flesh. Fresh, deep crimson blood immediately gushed from the wound.
Aria screamed in agony, completely resigned as she waited for the next fatal strike that would end her life.
However, the darkness that was supposed to consume her body suddenly exploded into a deafening hiss.
The exact second the droplets of Aria’s crimson blood splattered and hit the shadow claws, the black mist violently convulsed as if drenched in acid. The black smoke rapidly faded, writhing in agony, and layer by layer, disintegrated into fragments of ash that vanished into the air before they could even touch the floor.
The room suddenly fell deathly quiet.
Xavier, still chained to the bedpost, gasped heavily with what little strength he had left. Slowly, the pitch-black color receded from his eyes, returning to a pair of fiery red irises that were now wide with absolute shock.
He had witnessed the entire thing. The previous five brides had been torn to shreds because the black magic bleeding from his body could not be contained by anything. Yet this human girl... her blood had just annihilated the cursed magic with a single touch.
"You..." Xavier’s voice was hoarse, barely audible. "Your blood..."
Aria couldn't hear Xavier's words. Her head spun violently. The burning pain in her arm, the sheer psychological shock, and the crushing pressure of the supernatural energy that had just occurred completely drained her of all strength. Aria's vision slowly went black. Her body gave out and she collapsed onto the cold marble floor, falling unconscious.
The next morning, sunlight pierced through the large windows of the wedding chamber.
Outside the door, a crowd of maids, guards, and even several elders of the werewolf council had already gathered. Their faces were tense. A few maidservants had brought fresh burial shrouds and blood-cleaning tonics, preparing to evacuate the corpse of the sixth bride just as they had done so many times before.
The iron chains were roughly unfastened, and the heavy oak door was swung wide open. The head palace butler stepped inside with his head bowed, prepared to pay his final respects to the bride’s remains.
However, his footsteps froze. A hysterical shriek escaped the mouth of one of the maids behind him.
In the center of the room, Aria was not lying stiff as a corpse. The human girl was sitting on the edge of the bed, her arm securely wrapped in clean white linen. In front of her, Lord Alpha Xavier sat quietly on the floor, allowing Aria to meticulously apply a healing salve onto the remaining wounds on his temple.
Aria was still breathing. She was alive.
The entire room froze in utter disbelief. For the first time in history, a woman had successfully made it through her first night with the Bloodmoon Alpha and welcomed the dawn completely unharmed.
Xavier paid no mind to the shocked stares of the people standing at the threshold. His eyes were locked entirely on Aria, staring intently at the human girl who was now looking back at him with remnants of fear in her eyes. The Alpha knew his destiny had just changed.
However, as Aria stood up to adjust her torn gown, her hand accidentally brushed against something bulging beneath the bed pillows. Aria looked down and subtly pulled back the edge of the pillow.
A folded piece of worn-out paper was hidden there. With a swift, silent movement, Aria concealed the paper in the palm of her hand before Xavier or any of the servants could notice. While Xavier turned to speak to his guards, Aria slightly opened the paper and read the messy handwriting scrawled inside:
"Do not trust the Alpha. Your mother's mysterious illness... he is the cause of it. You have been sacrificed."
Aria's heart instantly dropped to the pit of her stomach, staring at Xavier’s broad back with a terrifying new sense of dread.
