ARIA'S POV
The dress doesn't fit.
I tug at the fabric bunching around my waist, trying to smooth out wrinkles that won't disappear. My hands are shaking. In thirty minutes, I'll walk into the Mate Recognition Ceremony wearing this faded blue dress that's two sizes too big, and everyone will know—again—that I don't belong.
"Please," I whisper to my reflection in the cracked mirror. "Please let tonight be different."
The girl staring back at me looks terrified. Silver-blonde hair that won't stay in its braid. Storm-grey eyes too big for my thin face. I look exactly like what I am: the pack's biggest embarrassment.
Twenty-two years old. No wolf. No future.
Tonight is my last chance.
The Mate Recognition Ceremony happens once every three years. Wolves aged twenty-two to twenty-five gather under the full moon, and if you're lucky, you feel it—the mate bond. That electric tingle when you catch your fated mate's scent. The pull that says this person is yours forever.
Except I've never felt anything like that. How could I? You need a wolf to sense the bond.
And I'm the only omega in three generations born without one.
I press my palm against my chest, feeling my heart hammer underneath. What if no one wants me? What if I'm alone forever?
A knock makes me jump.
"Aria, we're leaving in five minutes!" Sage's voice filters through the door. "You ready?"
"Almost!"
I'm not ready. I'll never be ready.
But I open the door anyway, and Sage takes one look at my face before pulling me into a hug. She's my best friend—my only friend—and she smells like pine trees and safety.
"You look beautiful," she lies.
I laugh, but it comes out shaky. "I look like I'm wearing someone else's clothes."
"That's because you are. I told you to borrow my red dress—"
"Your red dress would get me killed." I try to smile. "Lyanna already hates me. If I showed up looking better than her..."
Sage's expression darkens. My stepsister Lyanna is everything I'm not: powerful, beautiful, cruel. She shifted into a pure white wolf at age twelve—a year early—and has been the pack's golden child ever since.
"Forget Lyanna," Sage says firmly. "Tonight is about you finding your mate."
My stomach twists. Because there's only one male I've ever wanted.
Kael Blackwood.
Future Alpha. Strongest warrior in our generation. And the boy who defended me from bullies when we were twelve years old.
I've loved him for ten years. Quietly. Desperately. Knowing he'd never look twice at the wolfless omega.
But mate bonds don't care about logic. They're fated. Chosen by the Moon Goddess herself.
What if... what if Kael is mine?
"Come on." Sage grabs my hand. "Let's go find out who the Goddess picked for you."
The sacred grove glows silver under the full moon.
Hundreds of wolves gather in a massive circle around the ancient stone altar. My father—Alpha Marcus Thorne—stands at the center in his ceremonial robes, looking every inch the powerful leader he is.
He doesn't look at me as I slip into the crowd.
He never does.
"Wolves of Crescent Moon Pack!" His voice carries across the grove. "Tonight, we honor the Moon Goddess and witness the sacred mate bonds she has woven."
My heart pounds so hard I think everyone can hear it.
I scan the crowd, looking for him. There—Kael stands with the other unmated males, tall and broad-shouldered, his dark hair catching moonlight. He's the most handsome male I've ever seen.
Please, I pray silently. Please let him be mine.
"When the moon reaches its peak," my father continues, "those chosen by the Goddess will feel the pull. The bond cannot be denied. It cannot be broken."
Except it can be broken. Through rejection.
But no one talks about that. Rejecting your fated mate is considered cruel—unnatural. The pain alone can kill the rejected wolf.
I push the thought away. That won't happen to me.
The ceremony begins.
One by one, wolves find each other. A female from our pack gasps and runs toward a male from the visiting Shadow Ridge Pack. They embrace, and everyone cheers. More pairs form, scents calling to scents, souls recognizing souls.
I stand frozen, waiting.
Nothing happens.
Of course nothing happens. I can't feel the bond. I wouldn't know if my mate was standing right next to me.
My chest aches with disappointment so sharp it steals my breath.
Then I see him moving.
Kael walks through the crowd, his expression intense. Focused.
He's looking at someone.
My heart stops. Starts again. Speeds up.
He's looking at me.
Kael is walking straight toward me, his eyes locked on mine, and I can't breathe can't think can't do anything except stand there as he gets closer and closer—
Ten feet away.
Five feet.
This is real. This is happening. The Moon Goddess heard my prayers—
Three feet, and I can smell him now, pine and smoke and strength—
He stops directly in front of me.
"Aria," he says, and my name in his voice sounds like everything I've ever wanted.
I open my mouth to answer.
But someone else speaks first.
"There you are, my love."
Lyanna appears at Kael's side like a ghost materializing from shadows. She's wearing a white dress that makes her look like moonlight given form, her perfect blonde hair cascading down her back.
She links her arm through Kael's and smiles at me.
It's the smile a wolf gives prey right before the kill.
"Kael," she purrs, pressing against him. "Everyone's waiting."
My stomach drops through the ground.
No. No, this isn't—he was walking toward me, he was looking at me—
But Kael's eyes aren't warm anymore. They're cold. Distant.
Like he's looking at a stranger.
"I, Kael Blackwood," he says, his voice carrying across the suddenly silent grove, "reject you, Aria Thorne, as my mate."
The world stops.
I don't understand the words. They don't make sense. You can't reject someone who isn't your mate, and I didn't feel any bond, there's nothing to reject—
Then I feel it.
A golden thread I never knew existed, stretching between us, bright and beautiful and breaking.
Pain explodes in my chest like a knife made of fire.
I can't breathe. Can't stand. My knees hit the ground hard enough to bruise, but I barely feel it because my entire body is burning from the inside out.
"The Crescent Moon Pack needs strength," Kael continues, and his voice sounds like it's coming from underwater. "Not weakness. I choose Lyanna Thorne as my true mate. She's everything a Luna should be."
Blood pours from my nose. Warm. Copper-tasting.
The pack watches in absolute silence.
My father says nothing.
I'm dying. I must be dying. Nothing could hurt this much and leave you alive.
More blood, dripping from my ears now, pattering onto the sacred ground like rain.
My vision goes black at the edges.
The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Lyanna's triumphant smile.
Then—
Light.
Silver light erupts from my body in a shockwave that knocks everyone backward.
And my scent—oh god, my scent—floods the entire grove.
Ancient pine forests. Snow on mountains. Raw, undeniable power.
Every single wolf drops to their knees.
Even Kael.
Even my father.
They can't help it. Their wolves submit instinctively to something older and stronger than anything they've ever felt.
The last thing I hear before unconsciousness claims me is Elder Moira's shocked whisper:
"She carries the Original Bloodline."
And then, two hundred miles away in the Forbidden Wildlands where nothing living has survived for a thousand years—
Three pairs of eyes snap open.
Silver. Black. Pale blue.
Glowing in the darkness
Brothers," the silver-eyed wolf growls, his voice shaking the ancient trees. "Wake."
"Our Luna calls."