POV: Aria
I wake up screaming.
Pain rips through my entire body like I'm being torn apart from the inside. My chest feels like someone stuck a knife in it and keeps twisting. The mate bond—it's punishing me for using too much power, for being too far from Damon, for everything.
I don't know where I am at first. Then it comes back in pieces: running from my father, Rowan admitting he killed Damon's mother, me unleashing power I didn't know I had, then... nothing. I must have passed out.
Now I'm lying on a rough wooden floor in a small cabin. Dawn light comes through a dirty window. My whole body aches, and I'm so weak I can barely lift my head.
"You're awake."
I turn my head and see Damon sitting against the wall. He looks terrible—dark circles under his eyes, blood on his torn shirt, his face pale and exhausted.
"Where are we?" My voice comes out as a croak.
"Old hunting cabin on the north border. We're past pack territory." Damon doesn't move from his spot against the wall, like he's afraid to come closer. "You've been unconscious for six hours. I thought you were dying."
The mate bond pulses between us, and I can feel his emotions—worry, fear, guilt, and something else I can't name. It's overwhelming.
"Your father," I whisper. "He killed your mother. He tried to kill me. He—"
"I know." Damon's voice is flat, dead. "I heard everything."
We sit in silence. There's too much to say and no words big enough to hold it all.
"You saved me," I finally say. "You chose me over your father. Over everything. Why?"
Damon looks at me, and his eyes are full of pain. "Because he made me into a monster. Made me hurt you for years, torture you, break you down. And you were family the whole time. My mother's daughter. The only real family I had left, and I—" His voice breaks. "I destroyed you, Aria. I can never take that back."
Tears burn my eyes. "You didn't know."
"That doesn't make it okay." Damon's hands clench into fists. "Nothing makes it okay. I should have been better. Should have protected you instead of becoming everything my father wanted."
The mate bond tugs at me, wanting me to go to him, to comfort him. But I'm too weak to move. And part of me is still so angry at him for all those years of pain.
"What do we do now?" I ask.
"I don't know." Damon runs a hand through his hair. "My father will hunt us. Your parents too. We can't go back to Crimson Ridge. We can't—" He stops, and something flickers across his face. "Aria, there's something else. The mate bond. It's killing you."
I know. I can feel it. Every minute that passes, the pain gets worse. My power burned too bright, too fast. Without completing the mate bond, my body is eating itself from the inside out.
"How long do I have?" I ask quietly.
"A day. Maybe less." Damon's voice is rough. "There's only one way to save you. We have to complete the mate bond."
My heart stutters. "No."
"Aria—"
"I said no." I force myself to sit up, even though it makes my vision swim. "I won't complete a bond with someone who spent years making me wish I was dead. Mate bond or not, I deserve better than that."
The words hit Damon like a slap. He flinches but doesn't argue. "You're right. You do deserve better. You deserve everything good in the world, and I'm the last person who should give it to you." He takes a shaky breath. "But I don't want you to die. So tell me what to do. Tell me how to fix this."
"You can't fix it!" The words burst out of me, carried by three days of pain and fear and rage. "You can't just apologize and make everything okay! You broke me, Damon! You made me hate myself! You made me believe I was worthless!"
"I know!" Damon's voice rises to match mine. "I know what I did! I wake up every morning remembering every cruel word, every time I hurt you, and I want to tear myself apart for it!"
We're both breathing hard, emotions pouring through the mate bond so intensely I can't tell which feelings are mine and which are his.
"Then why?" My voice breaks. "Why did you do it? Why did you hate me so much?"
Damon is quiet for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is barely above a whisper. "I didn't hate you. I hated myself. My father told me my mother died because she was soft, because she cared about the wrong things. He said if I was like her—kind, gentle, weak—I'd end up dead too." He looks up at me, and his eyes are wet. "You reminded me of her. The way you helped omega kids who got bullied. The way you never fought back no matter how much I hurt you. The way you stayed kind even when the world was cruel. And I was terrified that if I was like you, if I let myself care about anything, I'd die just like she did."
Understanding crashes over me. Damon wasn't just following his father's orders. He was trying to kill the parts of himself that reminded him of his murdered mother. And I became the target of that fear.
It doesn't excuse what he did. But it helps me understand why.
"Your mother," I say softly. "She was really my mother?"
Damon nods. "Father said Catherine got pregnant before they mated. He forced her to give you to Marcus and Helena so no one would know. Then he killed her when you were just a baby."
So I never knew my real mother. Never knew she existed. Never knew I had family who might have loved me.
Fresh grief tears through me. For Catherine. For the childhood I could have had. For everything that was stolen from us.
"We're cousins," I say. The word feels strange. "Family."
"Yeah." Damon's smile is sad. "The family I tortured for years because I was too broken to see what was right in front of me."
The mate bond pulses again, and this time the pain is so intense I gasp. My vision goes dark at the edges. I'm running out of time faster than Damon said.
"Aria!" Damon is beside me in an instant, catching me before I fall. His touch sends sparks through my whole body, the mate bond singing with relief at the contact.
"I can feel you dying," Damon says desperately. "Please. I know you hate me. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. But please don't die because of my mistakes. Complete the bond. Save yourself. You can reject me after if you want, but please just live."
I look up at him. At this boy who destroyed me. Who saved me. Who is family and mate and enemy all at once.
"If we complete the bond," I whisper, "everything changes. We'll be connected forever. I'll feel everything you feel. You'll feel everything I feel. There's no going back."
"I know." Damon's hand cups my face gently, like I'm something precious instead of something he spent years breaking. "But I'd rather be connected to you forever than watch you die. Even if you hate me for the rest of our lives, at least you'll be alive to hate me."
The mate bond pulls tight between us, desperate and demanding. My wolf howls that we need this, need him, need to complete what fate started.
But my heart is still broken. Still covered in scars from years of his cruelty.
"I don't know if I can trust you," I admit. "I don't know if I can ever forgive you."
"I know." Damon's thumb brushes away a tear on my cheek. "I don't forgive myself either. But we're all we have now, Aria. Your family wants you dead. My father wants both of us dead. The pack won't protect us. It's just you and me against everyone."
He's right. We're alone. Hunted. And I'm dying.
Another wave of pain hits me, worse than before. I cry out, and Damon pulls me against his chest, his arms wrapping around me tight.
"Tell me what you need," he says against my hair. "Tell me how to help you."
What I need is complicated. I need him to undo years of trauma. Need him to prove he's changed. Need time we don't have.
But what I need right now, in this moment, is simple.
"Don't let me die alone," I whisper.
"Never." Damon's arms tighten around me. "I swear on my mother's memory, I will never leave you alone again."
The mate bond flares with the promise. I can feel his sincerity, his determination, his desperate need to protect me.
Maybe that's enough. Maybe it has to be.
I'm about to tell him okay, we'll complete the bond, when the cabin door explodes inward.
Five wolves burst through, all of them huge and scarred. Rogues. The same rogues from three days ago—the ones who attacked me at the border.
But they're not alone. Behind them stands someone I recognize.
Marcus. My fake father. The man who sold me to Alpha Rowan before I was even born.
"Hello, daughter," Marcus says with a cold smile. "Did you really think you could run from us? From what you are?" He gestures to the rogues. "These fine gentlemen have been tracking you since you unleashed your power. True Luna blood is quite valuable, you see. Rowan wants you dead, but there are other packs who would pay fortunes for a True Luna—dead or alive."
Damon moves in front of me, shifting partially. His eyes flash silver with rage. "Touch her and die."
Marcus laughs. "You're outnumbered, boy. Weakened. And she's dying anyway. This is over."
The rogues advance, circling us. Damon is strong, but he's one against five, and I'm too weak to fight.
We're trapped.
One of the rogues lunges at Damon. They crash together in a fury of teeth and claws. Another rogue comes at me.
I try to call my power, that silver light that saved us before. But I'm too weak. Nothing happens.
The rogue's claws slash toward my throat.
Then the cabin wall explodes.
A massive white wolf crashes through, larger than any wolf I've ever seen. She's beautiful and terrifying, with scars covering her body and eyes that glow like moonlight.
The rogues freeze. Even Marcus stumbles back.
"Impossible," Marcus breathes. "Elena? You're supposed to be dead."
The white wolf shifts to human form. She's an old woman, maybe sixty, with white hair and those same glowing eyes.
"Hello, Marcus," Elena says calmly. "I see you're still selling out your own blood for power. Some things never change."
She looks at me, and her expression softens. "Hello, child. I've been looking for you for eighteen years. My name is Elena Moonshadow." She smiles. "And I'm your grandmother."