KAEL – POV
Cassia's voice echoed like a stone dropped into still water.
"She's the Luna."
Every wolf in the grove turned, as if gravity itself had tilted toward the clone. Her followers didn't chant, didn't howl—they simply stood, eyes hollow, waiting.
And in the center of it all, Ayla stared back at her own face.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
"She's using your blood to craft allegiance," Rylan whispered beside me. "Using your past to twist their truth."
"No," I said quietly.
"She's using their longing."
Because for wolves who had suffered under silence and powerlessness, Ayla had become a beacon.
But a beacon burns.
And the clone had offered something different: A version of Ayla who didn't demand evolution. Only loyalty.
Cassia moved first. Not toward Ayla.
Toward me.
Her eyes were glassy, not like mind-control—worse.
Conviction.
"You were mine once," she said, voice steady. "But you were taken. Just like our Alpha. Just like our world."
