The firelight flickered in Kael's office, casting shadows across the stone walls as he paced. His jaw clenched with every step, every memory replaying in his mind like a cruel trick. Her eyes are silver like the edge of a blade. Her voice was venomous but trembling, as if part of her warred with what the moon had done.
Aria.
She had stirred something inside him he hadn't known could exist. A tether between souls. A bond that didn't ask permission. The Moon had chosen, and she was his.
But she had run.
Kael's hands curled into fists. No one ever ran from him, not without consequence. But this wasn't about power or pride. It was something deeper. A connection that refused to be ignored. And yet, she had looked at him like he was her enemy.
He turned toward the fire and muttered to himself, "Why would the Moon give me a mate who wants nothing to do with me?"
The door creaked open behind him. Joran entered, expression unreadable.
"She's gone," the Beta said. "Vanished into the southern woods. No trail."
"She masked her scent again?"
Joran nodded. "She's skilled. More than most rogues."
Kael stared into the flames. "She's not just a rogue. She's something else."
"What do you want us to do, Alpha?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. He hated feeling out of control and hated the ache that pulsed through his chest where the bond had been ignited. It was like trying to breathe with a missing lung. She was gone, but she wasn't. Her presence lingered like smoke after a storm.
"No one chases her," he finally said. "Not yet."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. She'll come back."
Joran raised a brow. "You think she'll return willingly?"
Kael's voice dropped an octave, heavy with quiet certainty. "She won't be able to stay away. The bond won't let her."
The southern woods were quieter now, but Aria's heart still thudded against her ribs like a drumbeat of panic. She had shifted after she escaped him, taking the form of her wolf and sprinting into the shadows. Miles later, she had collapsed, breathless, near the edge of a frozen stream.
Now, she sat alone, wrapped in a rough blanket, her skin bare to the cool night air. A small fire crackled in front of her, warming her numb toes.
Damn him, she thought bitterly.
The Alpha's touch still burned on her skin. His scent cedar, smoke, and something wild lingered in her lungs like an addiction. She hated how easily her body had responded to him. Hated how her wolf had whimpered when he released her. It wasn't a weakness. It was worse than that.
It was fate.
Her fingers grazed the side of her neck, the spot where his breath had ghosted across her skin. That moment had unraveled her and made her forget who she was. What she was running from.
I don't belong to him.
I don't belong to anyone.
But still, the memory of his eyes haunted her. Not just golden. Not just Alpha. But ancient. A fire in them that matched the one now crawling under her skin.
She stood abruptly, needing to move, needing to breathe. She couldn't stay here long. She had to keep running. The farther she got from him, the weaker the bond would become.
Wouldn't it?
Kael stood in the forest again the next evening, near the place he had first scented her. The wind was quiet tonight. No trace of her.
But she hadn't left his mind. Not for a second.
He could still feel the ghost of her presence in his soul, like a thread stretched taut between them. His wolf growled in protest, pacing inside him. Mate. Mate. Mate.
"Where are you, Aria?" he whispered.
The ground beneath his boots shifted slightly, and he froze. He wasn't alone.
A rustle to the left. Movement.
Then she stepped into view.
Only, it wasn't Aria.
A woman tall, lithe, with blood-red hair and a smirk carved in cruelty sauntered toward him with a sway of hips and dangerous grace.
"Alpha Kael," she purred. "Still playing hide and seek with destiny?"
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Ravina."
The witch grinned. "It's been a while."
"What do you want?"
She twirled a piece of her crimson hair between her fingers. "Oh, I came to warn you. There's danger in your woods."
"I know. Aria."
Ravina's smile faded, just slightly. "She's more than you think. More than even you know. That bond? It might destroy you."
He didn't move. "I'll take my chances."
She sighed dramatically. "You always were stubborn. But this girl she's not like the others. She's not some shy little wolf waiting to be claimed."
Kael's expression was stone. "I don't want obedience. I want her."
The witch's laughter echoed through the trees like shattered glass. "And the Moon wants chaos. Perfect match, isn't it?"
She vanished before he could reply, dissolving into mist.
Kael stared at the empty space where she'd stood, fists clenched. The words stuck in his mind like barbs.
She's more than you think.
Miles away, Aria crouched in the dark, eyes glowing silver, watching a group of rogue wolves pass beneath her perch in the trees. She recognized the scent of the ones who had been hunting her for months. But they weren't following her now. They were headed toward Blackclaw territory.
Her pulse spiked.
She could leave. Stay hidden. Let Kael deal with them.
But her wolf growled in protest. Instinct pulled her in the other direction back toward him. Toward the Alpha whose presence she could still feel in the hollow of her soul.
She closed her eyes.
Was it fate that pulled her back?
Or the beginning of a war?
What if running from him meant running straight into the arms of something far more dangerous?