Aria's POV
I jumped out of Dante's car before it even stopped moving.
"Wait!" Dante called after me, but I was already running toward the border where the Shadow Pack rogues waited.
My father and Elena were screaming behind me, but I didn't care. If there was even a tiny chance that the real Aria was living out there, I had to see for myself.
Because if she was real, then everything I thought I knew about myself was wrong.
We reached the border fence just as the sun was setting. On the other side, at least thirty rogues stood in a line. Their eyes glowed red in the darkness, and they all looked hungry for a fight.
But I only saw one person.
A small blonde girl stood in the middle of the rogues. She looked exactly like my sister Rose would have looked at ten years old. The same bright green eyes, the same sweet smile, the same way of standing with one foot turned out.
My heart stopped beating.
"Daddy!" the little girl called out when she saw my father. "Daddy, is that you?"
My father grabbed the fence so hard his hands turned white. "Aria? Baby, is that really you?"
The little girl nodded, tears running down her face. "I've been waiting for you to find me. They said you would come, but it's been so long."
I felt like someone had ripped my chest open. This girl knew my father. She remembered him. And he was looking at her like she was his whole world.
"We're going to get you out of there," my father promised. "Just hold on, sweetheart."
But Alpha Kane, the head of the Shadow Pack, stepped forward. He was a big man with scars covering his face and those terrible red eyes.
"She's not going anywhere," Kane said with a sound like gravel. "Not unless we get what we came for."
"What do you want?" Dante ordered, moving to stand beside my father.
Kane pointed right at me. "Her. The girl who's been claiming to be Aria Nightwood. She belongs to us."
"Like hell she does," Dante growled.
Kane laughed, and the sound made my skin crawl. "Oh, but she does. We've been taking care of her for seven years. Fed her, dressed her, kept her safe. And today, on her eighteenth birthday, she's going to become my mate."
I wanted to throw up. "I'll never mate with you."
"You don't have a choice," Kane said. "But I'm feeling giving today. I'll make you a deal."
He put his hand on the real Aria's shoulder, and she flinched away from him.
"You come with us freely, and I'll let little Aria here go home to her daddy. Refuse, and she stays with us forever."
The real Aria looked at me with those big green eyes. "Please," she whispered. "I just want to go home."
My heart shattered into a million pieces. This little girl had been stuck with these monsters for seven years. She deserved to be free, to be with her real family.
And I deserved to go back to the nightmare I'd escaped from.
"Okay," I said quietly.
"No!" Dante roared. "Absolutely not!"
"It's my choice," I told him. "She's innocent. She doesn't deserve this."
"And you do?" Dante grabbed my arm. "You think you deserve to be mated to that monster?"
I looked at the real Aria again. She was so small, so scared. "Yes. I do."
Before anyone could stop me, I started walking toward the gate in the fence.
"Aria, don't!" my father called out. "You're my daughter too now. I won't let you sacrifice yourself."
I stopped and turned back to him. "I'm not your kid. I never was. I stole seven years of love that belonged to her."
"That's not true," he said, tears in his eyes. "Love isn't something you can steal. It grows."
But I was already opening the gate. Kane was happy like he'd won the biggest prize in the world.
"Smart girl," he said. "Come here."
I took one step toward him, then another. Behind me, I could hear Dante making angry growling sounds.
That's when the real Aria did something that changed everything.
She broke away from the rogues and ran toward the fence.
"Stop!" she yelled. "You can't take her!"
Kane grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Shut up, little girl."
"No!" Aria fought against his grip. "She's not the one you want. I remember now. I remember everything!"
Kane's face went dark. "What are you talking about?"
"The night by the river," Aria said, her voice getting louder. "You didn't just take random children. You were looking for someone special. Someone with Alpha blood."
My blood went cold. "What?"
Aria looked right at me. "You're not just some random girl who got mixed up with my thoughts. You're Alpha Marcus Blackwood's daughter. You're Maya."
The name hit me like lightning. Maya. Suddenly, flashes of memory started coming back. A different house, a different father. A man with kind eyes who called me his little fighter.
"Maya Blackwood disappeared the same night I did," Aria continued. "The rogues took both of us, but they told you that you were me to keep you confused."
Kane's face was getting redder and redder. "I said shut up!"
"But why?" I asked, my head spinning. "Why take me at all?"
Aria's green eyes were bright with tears. "Because your father has something they want. Something they've been trying to get for seven years."
"What?" Dante demanded.
Before Aria could answer, Kane pulled out a gun and pointed it at her head.
"Enough talking," he snarled. "Maya Blackwood, you have thirty seconds to get over here, or I put a silver bullet in this little girl's brain."
My father stepped forward. "Take me instead. I'm the Alpha. I'm worth more than either of them."
Kane laughed. "You think this is about you, Victor? This was never about you."
He looked right at me with those terrible red eyes.
"This is about Maya's father. Alpha Marcus has been hiding something for eighteen years. Something that belongs to us. And the only way to get it back is through his beautiful daughter."
"What are you talking about?" I whispered.
Kane's smile was pure evil. "Your father killed our previous Alpha eighteen years ago. Right before you were born. And he took something that didn't belong to him."
"That's impossible," I said. "My father would never—"
"Your father stole our Alpha's mate," Kane continued. "A beautiful woman named Sarah. And nine months later, she gave birth to a little girl with Alpha blood."
The world started spinning around me. "No."
"Oh yes," Kane said. "Sarah was meant to be our Alpha's mate. But Marcus Blackwood charmed her and mated with her instead. Then, when our Alpha came to take what was his, Marcus killed him. "
I couldn't move. "You're lying."
"Am I? Tell me, Maya, what do you know about your mother's death?"
I felt like I was drowning. "She died when I was born."
"She died because she was already mated to someone else when she mated with your father. Double mating links always kill the female. Always."
Kane pointed the gun at my head now.
"So you see, little Maya, you're not just Alpha Marcus's daughter. You're also the daughter of our killed Alpha's stolen mate. Which makes you ours by right."
"And tonight," he said with that terrifying smile, "you're going to help us get our revenge."