Her scent shouldn't still affect me.Not after what I'd done. Not after I'd severed the bond.
But the moment the wind carried it to me, sharp and wild with an edge of something… unnatural, my wolf surged, snapping against my control like a chained beast.
She's ours, it growled. Mate. Claim her.
I clenched my jaw, forcing it down. "She's nothing to us," I muttered aloud, though no one was near to hear. The words tasted like ash.
The moon hung low over the treeline, spilling pale light across the forest. Somewhere ahead, Aria was moving—fast, but not fast enough to hide from me. Not anymore.
"Alpha," Lucien's voice crackled through the link, steady and professional. "Scouts confirmed it. The girl is alive. She… killed two rogues by herself. They said her eyes were glowing silver."
A pause. "Alpha… that's not possible."
My grip tightened on the comm-stone. "It's possible if she's made a deal with something she shouldn't have," I said. My voice was flat, but the thought burned like acid. "Find her before others do. The last thing I need is another pack thinking they can use her against us."
There was a reason I'd rejected Aria. A reason I'd buried so deep I hadn't dared whisper it to even Lucien.Because she wasn't just a weakness. She was a danger.
And now, judging by the silver glow the scouts reported, that danger was waking up.
I dropped from the ridge into the clearing, landing soundlessly. Her scent was stronger here—wild, electric, threaded with blood. My wolf paced in my head, restless.
Then I saw her.
Aria.
Standing in the center of the clearing, her back to me, her silver-streaked hair catching the moonlight like a banner. The air around her shimmered faintly, as if the world itself bent toward her.
For a heartbeat, I didn't move. Couldn't. The memory of her face when I'd cast her out—shattered, furious, broken—flashed in my mind. And for the first time in years, guilt pricked my chest.
She turned. Her eyes…
Silver. Glowing. Like no wolf's eyes should.
Her gaze locked on mine, unflinching. "Come to kill me yourself this time, Kael? Or are you just here to watch?"
I opened my mouth, but before I could answer, the wind shifted. Another scent—feral, unfamiliar, closing in.
Rogues. A lot of them.
Aria's eyes flicked toward the trees, narrowing, but she didn't step back. The faint glow around her pulsed once, like a heartbeat.
Whatever power she had now, it was calling predators. And I couldn't decide what scared me more—losing her to them…
Or what she might do to them if I didn't step in.