Smoke still curled from the ruins when dawn finally reached the valley. The mansion that had once gleamed like a monument to power now stood fractured, its towers scorched and broken.
Aurelia watched the sunrise from the edge of the courtyard, arms wrapped around herself. The cold seeped through her torn clothes, but she didn't move. Her power had drained completely during the night. Only the bond kept her standing a steady thrum beneath her ribs, faint but alive.
Kane approached quietly. The exhaustion in his movements made him seem less an Alpha and more a man who had spent too long carrying too many ghosts.
"They'll come at first light," he said.
"They?"
"The Council. They always appear to collect what's left."
Aurelia's fingers tightened around the railing. "Then we face them."
He studied her for a moment. "You say that as though you've done it before."
"I've faced worse."
"Not like this." He looked toward the forest, where dark figures were already gathering Council envoys, armored and silent. "They want to remind us who built this world."
"Then maybe it's time someone reminded them who bleeds for it."
Kane almost smiled. "Careful, little wolf. That kind of talk starts revolutions."
"Maybe it's time for one."
The words hung between them. Then the wind shifted, carrying the scent of iron and old magic. The envoys were approaching.
The Council arrived not as conquerors but as priests conducting a ritual. Five of them, robed in crimson and gold, faces hidden behind mirrored masks. The air around them pulsed with energy, thick enough to make breathing difficult.
Kane and Aurelia waited at the base of the grand staircase the only part of the estate still standing.
The lead envoy stepped forward. "Alpha D'Lyric. Aurelia Voss. By decree of the Crimson Council, you stand accused of violating the sacred laws of blood and bond."
Kane's reply was calm. "We violated nothing that wasn't already corrupt."
The envoy ignored him. "Your unauthorized binding threatens the balance. The bond must be dissolved."
Aurelia's voice cut through the wind. "You mean severed."
The envoy inclined their head. "Yes. By fire or by will."
Her stomach clenched. "And if we refuse?"
"Then we take what we came for the girl."
Kane's hand brushed hers, subtle but grounding. "You'll have to go through me first."
A low murmur rippled through the envoys. The leader raised a gloved hand, and the sky dimmed, the morning light swallowed by a crimson haze.
"Do not challenge the Council, Alpha. Even you cannot stand against us."
Kane's tone sharpened. "You mistake me for the man who used to obey you."
He drew his blade. The bond flared bright on Aurelia's collarbone, echoing the motion. Power pulsed outward, warping the air. The envoys staggered but didn't fall.
"You see?" one hissed. "The corruption spreads."
Aurelia stepped forward. "You call it corruption. I call it choice."
The light from her mark spilled across the ground, tracing symbols she didn't recognize ancient sigils forming themselves into a circle. The envoys recoiled.
"She carries the prime blood," one whispered. "Impossible."
The leader's mask tilted toward her. "You are the prophecy's key. The blood that binds the Alpha to the dawn."
"What prophecy?" Aurelia demanded.
"The one your ancestors sealed before the first bond was forged," the envoy said. "Your pack guarded it. That is why they died."
The truth hit like a blade. Her family hadn't been collateral damage they'd been execution targets.
Kane stepped closer. "And you hid this from me."
"Even Alphas obey necessity," the envoy replied. "You were chosen to keep her under control."
"Chosen?" Aurelia whispered. "You bound me to him to be your weapon."
The envoy's silence was answer enough.
For a heartbeat, even the wind stopped. The red haze hanging over the estate shimmered, waiting to see which would break first Kane's control or Aurelia's trust.
Kane's voice came low and rough. "They lie. Whatever the Council says, they twist it."
The envoy spread both hands. "Do you deny that the bond was our command? That the night your packs burned, we ordered you to mark her or watch her die?"
Aurelia's pulse stumbled. The memory of fire, the screams through the forest all of it slotted suddenly into place.
"You knew," she said, almost to herself. "You knew what they'd done."
Kane's answer was barely a whisper. "I thought I could keep you alive long enough to make it right."
"By keeping me in a cage?"
"To keep them from killing you!"
The argument struck sparks through the air. The bond flared again, its heat rolling out from their bodies until even the envoys took a cautious step back. Aurelia's eyes burned with tears that refused to fall.
"I am not a weapon," she said. "Not for them, not for you."
The sigil at her collarbone blazed until it hurt to look at. Red light spilled from the cracks in the ground, racing toward the ruined walls and the waiting forest beyond. She could feel the call stretch outward wolves, outcasts, anyone still bound to the Council's chains. They answered in the distance, faint howls threading the dawn.
The lead envoy's voice trembled for the first time. "You will destroy the balance."
Aurelia raised her head. "Then the balance was wrong."
Kane moved beside her, blade lowering. "If she falls, so do I. That's the bond you forged."
The envoy reached into his cloak and drew a sphere of dark glass. Inside it swirled a storm of light and shadow. "Then you will share her fate."
He hurled it at the ground. The glass shattered, and darkness exploded outward smoke that screamed as it moved. The other envoys vanished within it, chanting words that made the air itself twist.
Kane pulled Aurelia behind him, but the smoke found them anyway, crawling across skin like cold fire. The bond pulsed, fighting the intrusion, and for a second she saw flashes not of the courtyard but of memory Kane kneeling before the Council, her own face carved into prophecy tablets older than the cities.
When the vision cleared, the courtyard was empty. The envoys were gone. Only the faint echo of their voices lingered:
The bond must break, or the world will burn.
Aurelia sank to her knees. "What did they do?"
Kane sheathed his sword, eyes scanning the horizon. "They didn't kill us. They marked us."
A dark sigil had appeared on the stones where the sphere had struck, glowing faintly black-red. "A hunter's seal," he said. "They'll send others now Alphas who still serve them."
She looked at the mark, then at him. "Then we run?"
He shook his head. "No. Running is what they expect. We find allies before the seal calls their armies."
"Lysandra."
Kane hesitated. "She won't trust me."
"She'll trust me," Aurelia said. "And she'll hate the Council more than she hates you."
He studied her face, the determination there. "If we go after her, you take orders. No improvising."
She almost smiled through the exhaustion. "You can try giving orders to me."
For a moment, the tension broke. The sunrise caught the edges of his hair, turning the silver to gold. The world around them was ruined, but in that thin light she saw something almost human in him again.
He reached out, brushed the soot from her cheek with a single finger. "You keep surprising me."
"Get used to it."
The gesture lingered a second longer than it should have. Then he turned, cloak sweeping over the cracked marble. "We move before nightfall."
Aurelia followed, one last glance at the black sigil still smoking on the ground. In its reflection she saw not just her face but hundreds shadows of others bound by blood and promise, waiting for a signal.
She whispered to them, to the wind, to the old gods who still listened. "If they want a prophecy, I'll give them one."
Far above, clouds gathered again, bleeding crimson into the dawn. The Council's judgment had begun, and the war for the new moon would follow.