KAEL'S POV
I found Aria three hours later at the Sacred Grove—standing exactly where I'd watched her tomb explode with silver light.
She didn't turn when I approached, but I knew she heard me. Her divine senses probably tracked my location from miles away.
"I told you I needed to be alone," she said.
"And I told you I'm not leaving you to face this by yourself." I stopped a few feet behind her. "Elena's safe. Lyra cleansed the last of the corruption from her system. She's asking for you."
"She should rest."
"She wants to thank the woman who saved her life."
Aria's shoulders tensed. "I didn't save her for gratitude."
"I know." I moved closer, carefully. Like approaching a wounded wolf. "You saved her because it was right. Because that's who you are. Who you've always been."
"You don't know who I am anymore, Kael." She finally turned, and the exhaustion on her face broke my heart. "I'm not the girl who loved you. She died three years ago."
"Then who are you?" I asked quietly.
"I don't know." Her laugh was bitter. "The Moon Goddess's weapon? A sacrifice with an expiration date? A dead girl who made the mistake of coming back?"
I wanted to reach for her, to pull her into my arms and promise everything would be okay.
But I'd made enough empty promises to last a lifetime.
"You're Aria," I said instead. "The woman who conquered death because she was too stubborn to stay buried. The woman who walked into a Council full of Alphas and made them all kneel. The woman who dove into corrupted woods to save my sister without hesitation."
"That woman still ends up dead," Aria said flatly. "Either I sacrifice myself, or I create a child with you and sacrifice them. Those are my options."
The words hung between us like a blade.
"What if we don't do the ritual at all?" I asked.
"Then the Void King breaks free and millions die." She met my eyes. "Would you choose me over millions of innocent lives?"
Yes. The answer came instantly, terrifyingly. I would burn the world for her.
But I couldn't say that.
"There has to be another way," I said desperately.
"There isn't. Lyra confirmed it. The prophecy is absolute." Aria turned back to stare at the broken tombstone. "The Moon Goddess knew exactly what she was doing when she chose me. A broken omega with nothing to lose. The perfect sacrifice."
"You have everything to lose," I said roughly. "Your life. Your future. Your—"
"My what, Kael?" She spun to face me, silver eyes blazing. "My chance at happiness? I lost that three years ago when you chose Selene. My family? Dead. My pack? Barely remembers I existed. What exactly do I have that's worth more than saving the world?"
The question gutted me.
Because she was right. I'd taken everything from her.
"Me," I said quietly. "You have me. If you want me."
Aria stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"You're married," she said. "To Selene. Remember?"
"A political arrangement we both knew was hollow from the start." I took a step closer. "Selene and I never shared a bed. Never shared anything except cold dinners and painful silences. She knows I don't love her. She's always known."
"That doesn't make it better," Aria said. "It makes it worse. You married someone you didn't love, stayed in a miserable arrangement for three years, all because you chose duty over me. Over us."
"I was wrong." The admission tore out of me. "I was so fucking wrong, Aria. I thought I was being noble, preventing a war, protecting my pack. But all I did was destroy the only good thing in my life."
"And now what?" Aria's voice rose. "Now that I'm useful again, now that you need me for a ritual, suddenly you want me back? How convenient."
"That's not—"
"Isn't it?" She moved closer, and I felt the heat of her anger. "You had three years to realize your mistake, Kael. Three years of visiting my grave. Three years of living with guilt. But you never once tried to break your arrangement with Selene. Never once chose to honor my memory by being honest about your feelings."
Each word was a knife.
"Because I didn't deserve to be happy," I said. "Not after what I did to you."
"So you chose to be miserable instead?" Aria laughed, sharp and cutting. "How noble. The tragic Alpha, mourning his dead mate while staying married to a woman he doesn't love. Did it make you feel better? Did the suffering balance the scales?"
"No." My voice cracked. "Nothing made it better. Nothing ever will."
"Good." Aria's eyes were hard. "I'm glad you suffered. I'm glad every day was painful. Because you know what I learned while I was dead?"
I shook my head, not trusting my voice.
"I learned that I died thinking I was worthless," she said, each word precise and devastating. "That my last thoughts were wondering why I wasn't enough for you. Why my love didn't matter. Why saving your life was the only valuable thing I'd ever do."
Tears streamed down my face. "Aria—"
"Death taught me my worth, Kael." Her smile was sharp as silver blades. "It taught me that I was always enough. That your rejection said everything about you and nothing about me. That I didn't need your love to be valuable."
"I know," I whispered. "I know, and I'm sorry. I'm so—"
"Don't apologize." Aria cut me off. "Apologies are just words. They don't change what happened. They don't undo the pain."
"Then what do I do?" I asked desperately. "How do I fix this?"
"You can't." The finality in her voice broke something inside me. "Some things can't be fixed, Kael. Some betrayals cut too deep. Some deaths leave scars that never heal."
She was right.
I knew she was right.
But I couldn't accept it.
"The ritual," I said, grasping for anything. "If we perform it—if we work together to stop the Void King—"
"Then I die or create a child to die in my place," Aria finished. "Neither option includes a happy ending for us."
"What if you didn't have to choose alone?" The words came out before I could stop them. "What if I chose with you?"
Aria's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"
"The ritual requires the Guardian and her true mate," I said, the plan forming as I spoke. "Both of us channeling power together. What if... what if we both became the sacrifice?"
"That's insane," Aria breathed.
"Is it?" I moved closer. "If we die together, sealing the Void King permanently, isn't that better than you dying alone? Or forcing an innocent child to pay for our mistakes?"
"The world needs an Alpha," Aria said. "Your pack needs—"
"My pack needs to survive the Void King more than they need me," I interrupted. "Elena can lead. She's strong, smart, trained. She'll be a better Alpha than I ever was."
"Kael, you can't just—"
"I'm not letting you die alone again." My voice was steel. "If the price is death, we pay it together. As mates. As partners. As equals."
For a long moment, Aria just stared at me.
Then she laughed—wild and broken.
"You're serious," she said. "You actually think dying together is romantic."
"I think it's the only choice I can live with," I said. "Or die with."
Aria's expression shifted—something between fury and desperate hope.
"You're an idiot," she whispered.
"I know."
"You destroyed us. Broke everything we had."
"I know."
"And now you want to die with me to make up for it?"
"Yes."
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, tears streamed down her face.
"I hate you," she said.
"I know."
"I hate that part of me still loves you."
My heart stopped. "Aria—"
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Don't say anything. I need to think about—"
A massive tremor shook the ground.
The sky above us split open—not with clouds, but with pure darkness bleeding into our world.
And the Void King's voice boomed across the territories, loud enough that every wolf alive would hear it:
"THREE DAYS IS TOO LONG. I'M DONE WAITING. THE PRISON BREAKS AT DAWN. COME STOP ME, GUARDIAN... IF YOU DARE."
The darkness spread like spilled ink, corrupting everything it touched.
Aria's face went white. "That's impossible. Lyra said we had three days—"
"He lied," I said grimly. "Or he found a way to accelerate the timeline."
"Dawn." Aria looked at the sky. "That's less than six hours."
"Can you do the ritual that fast?" I asked.
"I don't know." Her hands shook. "It requires preparation, purification, synchronization—"
Another tremor.
Then Lyra's voice echoed in our minds—the Seer using telepathy to reach us:
The Void King has broken through the first seal. The second will fall within the hour. You must begin the ritual NOW or it will be too late.
Aria looked at me, terror and determination mixing in her silver eyes.
"We're out of time," she whispered.
"Then we do it now," I said. "Together. Whatever happens—"
"We face it as mates," she finished.
And I realized: we were about to perform a ritual that required perfect trust and harmony.
With a bond still broken by three years of pain.
This was either going to save the world.
Or destroy us both.