ARIA'S POV
I can't breathe.
It's been three hours since Kael left my room, and I can still feel him. Feel his heartbeat like it's my own. Feel his frustration pulsing through the mate bond like a second skin I can't take off.
I pace the room, clawing at my arms, trying to make it stop.
It doesn't stop.
My wolf is going crazy inside me, howling and scratching to get out. To find him. To complete what the Moon Goddess started on that battlefield.
"No," I whisper to myself. "He's the enemy. He's killed my pack. He's—"
The mate bond flares so hot I gasp, doubling over.
Kael feels close. Too close.
I hear footsteps in the hallway. Heavy boots. Coming toward my door.
My heart races. Every nerve in my body screams yes even as my mind screams no.
The footsteps stop outside my door.
I hold my breath.
Nothing happens.
Then I hear it—a low growl. Frustrated. Angry. Desperate.
"Aria," Kael's voice comes through the door. Rough. Barely controlled. "I know you're awake."
I don't answer. Can't answer. My voice won't work.
"I can feel you," he continues. "Feel you fighting the bond. It's driving me insane."
"Good," I manage to whisper, even though I know he can hear me with his wolf senses. "Now you know how I feel."
Silence.
Then the doorknob turns.
I should tell him to leave. Should scream at him to get away from me.
Instead, I just stand there, frozen, as Kael walks into my room.
He looks terrible. His hair is messy like he's been running his hands through it. His eyes are wild—half man, half wolf. His chest is bare, muscles tense, and I can see his wolf just beneath the surface, fighting for control.
"You need to leave," I say, but my voice comes out wrong. Weak.
"I tried." Kael closes the door behind him. "I got halfway down the hall and couldn't keep walking. The bond—" He stops, jaw clenching. "It's torture being away from you."
"I don't care."
"Liar." He takes a step closer. "I can feel what you're feeling, remember? You want this as badly as I do."
Heat floods my face. "My wolf wants it. Not me."
"Your wolf is you, Aria. We're not two separate things. You know that."
"Then maybe I'm just weak," I snap. "Maybe everyone was right about me."
Kael's eyes flash dangerously. "Don't."
"Don't what? Tell the truth?" I laugh, but it sounds broken. "I'm the weakest wolf in my pack. I can't even control my own instincts. I'm pathetic—"
Kael moves so fast I don't see it coming.
One second he's across the room. The next, he's right in front of me, his hand gentle but firm on my chin, forcing me to look at him.
"You," he says slowly, "are not weak. You survived a battle meant to kill you. You stood up to your own Alpha. You're fighting a mate bond that would have broken most wolves by now." His thumb brushes my cheek. "You're the strongest person I've ever met."
Tears burn my eyes. "Stop."
"Why?"
"Because if you keep talking like that, I'll start believing you. And I can't—" My voice breaks. "I can't afford to believe anything right now."
Kael's expression softens in a way that makes my chest hurt. "What are you so afraid of?"
"Everything," I whisper. "I'm afraid of you. Of this bond. Of becoming someone I don't recognize. Of losing myself completely."
"You won't lose yourself." His other hand comes up, cradling my face. "The mate bond doesn't erase who you are. It completes you."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've been incomplete my whole life," Kael says quietly. "And the moment I saw you, I felt whole for the first time. Terrified and furious and completely overwhelmed, but whole."
The bond pulses between us, hot and insistent.
I should pull away. Should push him back. Should remind him—and myself—that he's the enemy Alpha who's killed hundreds of my packmates.
But when I look into his ice-blue eyes, all I see is the same desperate longing I feel.
"This is wrong," I whisper.
"I know."
"We barely know each other."
"I know that too."
"Then why—"
"Because the Moon Goddess chose us," Kael interrupts. "And I stopped questioning her the moment I realized fighting this bond hurts worse than anything Silvercrest has ever done to me."
His words hit like a punch to the gut.
"If you don't leave right now," I say, voice shaking, "I won't be able to stop myself."
Kael's eyes search mine. For one terrible, wonderful second, I think he's going to kiss me.
Then he steps back.
"I won't force this," he says roughly. "When you're ready—if you're ever ready—you'll come to me. Until then—"
A howl splits the night.
Not just any howl. A war cry.
Kael's whole body goes rigid. "No."
"What is that?" I ask, fear shooting through me.
Another howl joins the first. Then another. All coming from the south.
From Silvercrest territory.
Kael runs to the window, looking out into the darkness. I follow, and my blood turns to ice.
Torches. Hundreds of them. Moving through the forest toward the fortress like a river of fire.
"They're attacking," Kael growls. "Your pack is attacking."
"No," I breathe. "They wouldn't—"
"They would. They are." He spins to face me, and his expression is fierce. Protective. Terrifying. "This is because of you. They're coming for you."
Before I can respond, the door bursts open.
Theron stands there, already shifted halfway into his wolf form. "Alpha! Silvercrest forces at the southern border. At least three hundred wolves." His eyes dart to me, cold and accusing. "They're demanding we surrender the traitor."
My heart stops.
"They mean me," I whisper.
Kael's hand finds mine, gripping tight. "They're not getting you."
"Kael, if this is about me, maybe I should—"
"No." His voice is absolute. Alpha command. "You're under my protection. Mine. They can bring their whole damn pack. I'm not giving you up."
Another howl, closer this time.
Theron shifts fully into wolf form. "Alpha, orders?"
Kael looks at me for one long moment. Then his eyes go hard.
"Prepare for war," he says.
And from somewhere in the darkness beyond the fortress walls, a voice I recognize—my father's voice—booms across the night:
"Send out the traitor, Nightshade! Or we burn your pack to the ground!"