Aria's POV
The wave of Damien's joy hits me so hard I drop my coffee mug.
It shatters on the kitchen floor of my tiny apartment, brown liquid spreading across the cracked tiles. But I barely notice because I'm on my knees, clutching my chest as his emotions flood through the broken bond like acid in my veins.
He's ecstatic. Happier than I've ever felt him, even on the days when he told me he loved me.
Three months. It's been three months since the rejection, and the bond still hasn't faded. Every single day, I feel everything he feels—his contentment, his excitement, his satisfaction with his new life. The life that doesn't include me.
My wolf whimpers deep inside, still too damaged to surface. She's been silent for ninety-two days. I've counted every single one.
I force myself to breathe through the pain. In and out. In and out. It's a routine now—wake up, feel Damien's happiness, try not to scream, survive another day.
My phone rings. I consider ignoring it, but it might be my mom. She's the only one who still calls.
"Hello?" My voice sounds like sandpaper.
"Aria! Oh thank god, I've been trying to reach you!" It's Lyra, her voice frantic. "Are you watching the news?"
"No. Why would I—"
"Turn it on. Now. Channel Seven."
Something in her tone makes my blood run cold. I grab the remote with shaking hands and flip to the pack news network.
Damien's face fills the screen.
He's standing on the steps of the Silvercrest Pack House, looking like every inch the powerful Alpha. And beside him, her hand in his, is Celeste. She's wearing a dress that probably costs more than my rent, her dark hair perfect, her smile radiant.
My ex-mate and my ex-best friend. Together. Official.
The reporter's voice filters through my shock: "Alpha Damien Silvercrest has just announced his engagement to Celeste Winters, daughter of the Silvercrest Pack's Third Elder. The ceremony will take place next month under the full moon..."
I can't breathe.
They're actually doing it. Getting married. Making it permanent.
Through the bond, Damien's emotions spike—pride, anticipation, and something else. Something that feels like... relief. Like he's finally getting what he always wanted.
And it was never me.
"Aria? Are you still there?" Lyra's voice sounds distant.
I watch as Damien pulls Celeste closer, kisses her forehead for the cameras. The gesture is intimate, possessive. Exactly how he used to touch me in the beginning, before everything went wrong.
But it wasn't wrong for him, was it? He was planning this. While I was picking out wedding flowers and dreaming about our future, he was already building a new one with her.
"I need to break the bond," I hear myself say. "Tonight."
"What? No, Aria, we talked about this—"
"I can't do this anymore!" I'm shouting now, three months of pain exploding out of me. "Every second of every day, I feel him being happy without me! I feel him loving her while I'm dying alone in this apartment! It has to end!"
"The ritual is too dangerous—"
"I don't care!" My hands are shaking so badly I almost drop the phone. "You said you knew how to break it. You said there was a way."
Lyra is quiet for a long moment. Then: "The Blood Moon Ritual. Tonight's the only night it can work—the blood moon only happens once every hundred years. But Aria, if something goes wrong—"
"Then I'll die. And at least I won't feel him anymore."
Another pause. I can practically hear Lyra's internal struggle through the phone.
"Fine," she finally says. "But we do this my way. I'll gather the supplies. Meet me at my place at sunset. And Aria? If you're not absolutely sure about this, don't come. Once the ritual starts, there's no stopping it."
"I'm sure," I whisper.
I've never been more sure of anything in my life.
After we hang up, I turn off the TV. I can't watch anymore. Can't see them smiling while my world crumbles.
I should eat something. Should pack a bag in case things go wrong. Should call my mom and tell her... what? That I'm about to perform forbidden magic that might kill me?
Instead, I walk to my bathroom and stare at myself in the mirror.
The girl looking back at me is a stranger. My silver-blonde hair is dull and tangled. My violet eyes—the eyes my mom always told me to hide with contacts because they're "too unusual"—are hollow. I've lost weight I couldn't afford to lose. My skin is pale, like I'm already half-dead.
Maybe I am.
Without my wolf, without the bond, without Damien—what am I?
Just a broken girl in a broken body, feeling a broken connection to a man who never truly wanted me.
No more.
Tonight, under the blood moon, I'm going to cut him out of my soul. Forever.
I'm about to turn away from the mirror when I notice something strange. There's a mark on my collarbone—a silver symbol I've never seen before. It almost looks like... a crescent moon?
I lean closer, my heart pounding. The mark is faint, barely visible, but it's definitely there. And it's glowing.
What the—
A knock on my door makes me jump.
Nobody ever visits me. My mom calls, but she hasn't come by since I moved out. I told her I needed space to heal. Really, I just couldn't stand the pity in her eyes.
Another knock, harder this time.
"Aria Whitlock, I know you're in there. Open up."
I freeze. That voice. Deep, commanding, with an edge of irritation.
I know that voice from pack gatherings, from the stories everyone whispers, from the warnings my mom gave me about staying away from dangerous wolves.
Kael Blackthorn.
The Alpha who killed his own father. The rival Damien has hated for years. The most dangerous wolf in all the territories.
What is he doing at my door?
"I can hear your heartbeat," Kael calls through the door. "And I can smell your fear. We need to talk. Now."
My mind races. How does he even know where I live? Why would Kael Blackthorn—the wolf every pack fears—be looking for me?
"Go away," I manage to say, my voice shaking.
"Not happening. Open the door, or I'll break it down. Your choice."
He would do it too. Everyone knows the stories about Kael—how he destroyed half his father's estate during their death match, how he rebuilt his pack through blood and terror, how he's never lost a fight.
And he's here. At my apartment. Demanding to talk to me.
Through the bond, I feel Damien's joy spike again—he must be celebrating his engagement with the pack. He has no idea what's happening to me right now. He wouldn't care if he did.
I have two choices: open the door and face whatever Kael wants, or refuse and risk him actually breaking in.
Neither option is good.
But something about that silver mark on my collarbone is burning now, getting hotter by the second. And through the door, I swear I can feel something else—a pull, like invisible strings tugging me toward Kael.
What is happening to me?
"Five seconds," Kael warns. "Four... three..."
My hand moves before my brain catches up. I unlock the door and pull it open.
Kael Blackthorn stands in my doorway, and he's even more terrifying up close. He's massive—at least six and a half feet of pure muscle and controlled violence. His black hair is slightly too long, falling into eyes that are the strangest shade of silver I've ever seen. Scars mark his neck and hands, proof of countless battles.
He's wearing dark jeans and a leather jacket, looking nothing like the formal Alpha I've seen at pack meetings. He looks wild. Dangerous. Like he could tear me apart without breaking a sweat.
Our eyes meet, and something slams into me.
Not through the bond with Damien. Something else. Something new and terrifying and completely impossible.
Kael's eyes widen. His entire body goes rigid.
"No," he breathes, and he sounds horrified. "No, this can't be—"
The silver mark on my collarbone burns like fire. I gasp, pressing my hand to it.
Kael sees the gesture. Sees exactly where I'm touching. His face goes deathly pale.
"You felt it," he says flatly. "The pull. The mark."
"What are you talking about?" But even as I ask, I know. Deep in my bones, in the place where my broken wolf is hiding, I know.
"The pre-bond," Kael says, and he looks like he wants to murder someone. "The gods-damned pre-bond. You're supposed to be—no. This is wrong. This is all wrong."
"I don't understand—"
"You're my mate," Kael snarls, and the fury in his voice makes me step back. "My true mate. And I've been looking for you for three months because my wolf has been going insane, and now I find you here, still connected to that bastard Silvercrest, planning to do something stupid that I can feel through our forming bond—"
"We don't have a bond!" I protest. "I'm bonded to Damien, not you!"
"A broken bond with the wrong wolf," Kael corrects harshly. "And tonight—tonight you're planning the Blood Moon Ritual, aren't you? To sever it."
How does he know that?
"That's none of your business—"
"It became my business the moment the moon marked you as mine." He steps into my apartment, forcing me backward. "And here's what you don't know about that ritual, little mate. It doesn't just break bonds. Under a blood moon, if you're not alone, it creates them. Permanently. With whoever is present."
My heart stops.
"I'm supposed to be alone," I whisper.
Kael's smile is sharp and without humor. "Yes. You are. But I'm going to be there."
"What? Why would you—"
"Because if I'm not, someone else will be. And I'll be damned if I let my true mate bond herself to another bastard who doesn't deserve her."
The world tilts sideways.
This can't be real. Kael Blackthorn can't be my mate. I can't have two mates. That's not how this works.
But the mark on my collarbone is still burning, and when I look at Kael, something in my chest responds. Something that has nothing to do with Damien.
"This is insane," I breathe.
"Agreed," Kael says. "But here's what's going to happen. You're going to do your ritual tonight. And I'm going to make damn sure you do it right—even if it means binding myself to a woman who's in love with my worst enemy."
"I'm not in love with him anymore!"
"Your broken bond says otherwise." Kael's silver eyes bore into mine. "But after tonight? You'll never feel him again. I'll make sure of it."
He turns to leave, then pauses at my door.
"Midnight. The Forbidden Grove. Don't be late, mate. We have a bond to break—and possibly one to create."
Then he's gone, leaving me standing in my apartment with a burning mark on my skin and a terrible certainty settling in my gut.
Tonight is going to change everything.
And I have no idea if I'll survive it.