Sienna's POV
My eyes opened and everything was wrong.
The bed was too big. The room was too dark. My neck was burning like someone had pressed fire directly against my skin. I sat up too fast and my head spun with it.
I was alone.
Kade was gone. The place where he'd slept beside me was already cold. I pressed my hand to my neck where his mark sat and felt the heat radiating from it. The mark was glowing faintly. Actually glowing with a light that shouldn't exist.
And underneath my skin, my power was screaming.
It was like something had been asleep inside me my entire life and last night's mark had finally woken it up. I could feel it moving through my blood now. Moving through my bones. Pushing against my skin like it was trying to escape.
I stumbled out of bed and caught my reflection in the mirror.
My eyes were gold.
Actually gold. Not green anymore. Pure gold with flecks of something darker moving through them like they were alive. The scent mark on my neck glowed the same gold color. It wasn't the faint Omega mark I'd lived with my whole life.
This was something ancient. Something powerful. Something that announced to the world exactly what I was.
My hand was shaking when I touched the mirror.
This was it. This was the moment Evangeline had warned me about. This was the waking up that was supposed to bring war. That was supposed to bring death. That was supposed to convince Kade to turn on me the second he realized what I truly was.
I grabbed a robe and wrapped it around myself. I needed to hide this. Needed to find clothes that covered the mark. Needed to figure out how to pretend to be an Omega when I was glowing like a full moon.
I was moving through the hallway when I heard the voice that had haunted my entire childhood.
"Sienna."
I froze.
Evangeline stood at the end of the corridor like she'd materialized from shadow. She was wearing black. Her hair was perfect. Her expression was the ice-cold smile she used when she was about to say something designed to hurt.
"Aunt," I said, and my voice came out shaky.
"We need to talk," she said. It wasn't a request.
She took my arm and led me to a small room off the main hall. A study or library. Somewhere empty where no one would hear us. The moment the door closed behind us, she released my arm and stepped back to look at me.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw my neck. When she saw the glow.
"It's worse than I thought," she whispered.
"What's worse?" I asked, but I already knew. I could feel it. My power was too strong. Too visible. Too impossible to hide.
"The mark woke it up completely," Evangeline said. She was pacing now. Her usual control was slipping. "I thought we had more time. I thought the false scent would hold longer."
"What will happen?" I asked, and I hated how small my voice sounded.
Evangeline turned to face me and her expression was pure ice.
"The Council will come," she said. "They'll come hunting you the moment they understand what you are. They hunted your bloodline before and they'll do it again. They'll decide you're a threat to their order and they'll move to eliminate you."
My stomach twisted.
"And Gareth Drakmore," Evangeline continued. "He's been searching for the bloodlines for years. He wants the power for himself. Once he knows you exist, once he realizes you're marked to Kade, he'll move against this territory immediately. He'll try to take you. To use you to reshape the entire wolf world under his control."
"Kade will protect me," I said, but even as the words left my mouth, I didn't believe them.
Evangeline laughed. It was a cold, hollow sound.
"Kade will turn on you," she said. "The moment he understands what marking you means. The moment he realizes that binding himself to you has made him a target. He'll send you away. He'll deny you. He'll do whatever he has to do to protect his pack."
"No," I said. "He told me we'd prepare. He said we'd—"
"He said that last night when you were still his new bride," Evangeline interrupted. "When the mark was fresh and his wolf was still high on the bonding. Wait until he realizes what you cost him. Wait until he understands that being bound to an Ancient bloodline makes him the enemy of everyone who matters. Then see if he still wants to stand beside you."
I felt like I was drowning.
"What do you want me to do?" I whispered.
"Stay hidden," Evangeline said. "Stay silent. Suppress the power. Make yourself small again. The false scent is gone but you can still hide what you are if you try hard enough. You can bury the gold eyes. You can keep your mouth shut about the power. You can be the docile wife Kade thought he was getting."
"And if I don't?" I asked.
Evangeline stepped closer. Close enough that I could see the cruelty in her eyes.
"If you don't, then thousands will die," she said quietly. "War will come to this territory. The Council will move against it. Rival packs will attack. Wolves will burn. Families will be destroyed. All because you couldn't keep your bloodline hidden. All because you had to let your power wake up."
She placed a hand on my cheek and her touch was ice.
"It's not just your life you're risking, Sienna. It's everyone who lives here. Every wolf that calls this pack home. Every person who depends on Kade for protection. Their deaths will be on your hands if you show what you really are."
I felt tears building behind my eyes.
"I didn't ask for this," I whispered.
"No," Evangeline agreed. "You didn't. But you have it anyway. And the only way to keep people alive is to keep pretending. To keep hiding. To be exactly what the world thinks you are."
She pulled her hand back and straightened her dress.
"I'll tell the Council that the mark simply settled your omega nature," she said. "That you're adjusting to your new life. In a few weeks, the gold will fade. The power will settle. Everything will go back to normal if you just stay quiet."
"And if someone notices?" I asked.
"Then you tell them it was nothing," Evangeline said. "A trick of the light. A side effect of the bonding. Whatever you have to say to keep them from looking closer."
She moved toward the door.
"Stay hidden, Sienna. Or burn the world down. Those are your only choices."
Then she was gone.
I stood alone in that empty room with my neck glowing gold and my power burning underneath my skin and realized that I was trapped.
Kade had promised we'd prepare. Had told me we'd burn the Council down. But Evangeline's words were like poison in my veins because I knew she was right. I knew that the moment Kade understood what his mark meant, what choosing me would cost him, he would change his mind.
Wolves didn't choose powerless mates.
Alphas didn't choose war for women they barely knew.
And I was a fool if I thought anything had changed just because he'd marked me.
I pressed my hand to my neck and felt the power burning underneath. Felt it pushing to escape. Felt it desperate to become.
And I stood there in the empty room and tried to figure out how to bury something alive while it was desperately trying to live.
I didn't know if I could do it.
I didn't know if I could stay silent and hidden and small when everything inside me was screaming to break free.
But I knew that if I didn't at least try, thousands of people would die.
And that weight, that impossible choice, settled on my shoulders like a cage made of stone.