CHAPTER 9: The Forgotten Pact
974 Words
The hybrid’s final words echoed through the lab, too clear to ignore.
“Maera… Nexum…”
Aria crouched beside the collapsed creature, heart still hammering. The silence that followed was not just heavy—it was absolute, like the world itself was waiting for her to breathe.
Kellen stood at her back, scanning the lab with his weapon drawn, though the threat had passed.
“What the hell is Nexum?” he asked.
Aria didn’t answer right away. Her hand hovered inches above the hybrid’s cooling skin, her fingers trembling. It had bowed to her. It had whispered her aunt’s name. Not out of programming or obedience—but out of recognition. Out of something deeper.
“I think it knew me,” she murmured. “Not just what I am… but who I am.”
“It responded to your blood resonance,” Kellen said. “That signal you pushed—it was ancient, primal. A wolf-code. Something no machine should’ve been able to register.”
Aria rose, eyes fixed on the far side of the lab. “Then this isn’t just tech. It’s memory. Inheritance.”
She walked toward a sealed door that blinked red, half-hidden by dust and disuse.
Behind it lay a second chamber.
Inside was a vault.
Not of gold. Of memory.
Rows of servers lined the curved walls, each engraved with a House Vex crest, faded but not forgotten. Symbols of bloodlines long erased from the surface, their legacies buried in silicon and bone.
She approached the central terminal. Its screen blinked once and powered on. The interface recognized her immediately.
Welcome, VEX_ARIA.
A message played automatically.
A woman’s voice.
Familiar.
:: If you're seeing this, it means they didn’t kill you. It means you escaped what I couldn’t. This is Maera. Your aunt. I don’t have much time. ::
Aria’s breath caught. She took a step closer.
:: They call it Nexum. A pact made in blood before the Uprising. Not between wolves and humans—but between bloodlines. The oldest houses made a deal. One that turned us from rulers… to breeders. ::
Maera’s voice cracked slightly, then steadied, like someone bracing against their own destruction.
:: They used our genetics, our instincts. They made pacts with vampires, with syndicates. They sold our legacy piece by piece—until House Vex stood in the way. We refused to join the pact. That’s why they came for us. That’s why they destroyed everything. ::
Kellen shot Aria a glance. She didn't move.
:: Nexum is the endgame. Crownbite is just a tool. Nexum makes sure no bloodline is pure anymore—only programmable. If they get you, Aria, they get the last strand. Don’t let them. Fight louder. Burn brighter. And remember… we were never meant to be tamed. ::
The screen flickered. Then died.
Aria stood in silence for several minutes.
Kellen broke it first. “You okay?”
“No,” she said. “But I’m awake.”
She turned.
“We’re done waiting.”
Kellen nodded. “What’s the move?”
“We go public again. Full blackout drop. But this time, I name names.”
“You’ll bring the hammer down on the city.”
“Then let it fall.”
---
Back at her penthouse, Aria stripped off her gear and stepped into the shower. The water was scalding. She welcomed the pain. Let it chase away the chill in her spine.
Her hands braced against the tile. Her breath fogged the glass. For the first time in days, she allowed herself to cry—not out of fear, but out of fury. For her aunt. For the wolves bred and broken. For the body she was forced to inhabit.
When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, Dominic was waiting.
“How did you get in?” she asked, weary.
“You let me keep a key.”
“I was younger then.”
He looked tired. Troubled. There was dirt on his collar and blood on his wrist.
“You saw her?” he asked.
“I saw what’s left of her.”
She tossed him a datapad. “Maera knew everything. Nexum is real. It started before either of us were born.”
Dominic read in silence. His face changed as he scrolled—rage. Guilt. Determination.
“It goes higher than I thought.”
“It always does.”
He looked up. “You know what they’ll do when you expose this?”
“Try to kill me.”
“They’ll try to erase you. They’ll wipe Nova. They’ll collapse your label. They’ll hunt every wolf in your bloodline.”
Aria nodded. “Then we hit them first.”
He stepped closer.
“I made mistakes,” he said. “I stood still when I should have fought. But I’m moving now. With you. If you’ll let me.”
She studied him, searching his face.
“Then stand beside me,” she said. “Not in front.”
He nodded. “I’ll start prepping safehouses. We’ll need a dozen, at least.”
“And Kellen’s building the leak net.”
Dominic hesitated.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
He pulled a second chip from his coat.
“The registry list you saw?” he said quietly. “That wasn’t all of it.”
She snatched it. Plugged it into her terminal. The data loaded.
The list expanded.
Thousands of names. Tens of thousands.
She scrolled, heart pounding.
And then she saw it:
ARIES D. VEX
She froze.
For a moment, all she heard was the blood in her ears.
“What is this?” she whispered.
Dominic’s voice was low. “Your father. He’s alive.”
Aria stared at the screen.
Her heart, which had spent so long becoming steel, cracked open all at once.
---
- Writer
