CHAPTER 4

ARIA'S POV

I stood at the edge of the clearing as frost laced over the tree limbs, the chill of dawn brushing against my skin like a warning. The cold barely registered anymore, not when fire roared inside me.

My breath came steady, but every inhale felt like swallowing shards of ice. I couldn't shake the echo of Kaiden's voice from my head.

The way he said my name. The way he rejected me like I was nothing. Like I hadn't haunted his past as much as he haunted mine.

My arms were folded tight across my chest, fingers digging into the rough wool of my cloak as I tried to steal the fury writhing beneath my skin. My wolf prowled inside me, wounded and confused. She hadn't expected the rejection. I hadn't either.

Not from him.

"Wake up everyone!" I told David, who'd appeared without making any sound, like he always does. "We're training today. Hard."

He nodded once, his gaze lingering on my face. He didn't speak. He didn't need to.

By midmorning, the camp came alive with the grunts and growls of sparring. I walked the perimeter, correcting stances, shouting orders, watching bodies collide in the dirt with brutal rhythm. My voice cut through the air like a whip.

"Again, Cera! Put your weight behind it. Your enemy won't wait for you to commit." I shouted, looking at her incorrect posture.

She rolled her eyes, sweat beading on her brow. "I'm going to hit you in a second." She says in confidence and I scoff at her response.

I smirked, looking at her. "You can try, Sweety!" Provoking is not the best choice but it will help her in training.

I turned sharply when Jax stumbled, missing a defensive block. I was on him in a second. "Like this." I said, wrenching the blade from his hand and demonstrating with precision. "In and out. Quick. No hesitation."

He nodded quickly, his face pale. I didn't let up, pressing on him hard and leaving no place of mercy for them.

They needed to be ready. If Blackridge sent another wave of hunters... if he came- No! I couldn't let that thought take root.

"You're way too strong, Sis!" Alex growls when I give him a punch- not too hard, and tackle him to the ground.

"I'm not strong, your moves are just a little slow." I replied, leaving him behind and moving to another person to train.

By midday, everyone collapsed by the fire pit. Mira passed around the water, pressing a small vial into my hand. "You're pushing too hard."

"I'm not pushing hard enough." I said, shaking her off, and taking a sip of water.

I stood off to the side, watching my pack breathe steam into the air like wounded animals. They were tired. But they were alive. And they were mine.

"We won't run next time!" I said, looking at all of them. "We will fight. I don't care who it is. We fight and we win." I announce and see their faces change their colour.

David's voice was low. "You mean if he comes." He cocks his eyebrows at me, desperately seeking out on my already wounded heart.

I met his eyes, my spine stiff. "I said what I meant." I said firmly, looking at him.

But inside, the words stung.

Because David is right. It was him I feared. Not for what he could do to my body, but what he already did to my mind.

I left them in the clearing and wandered to the stream at the camp's edge. The water ran clear and cold over the stone. I knelt and dipped my hands in, hoping the shock would clear my head.

Mira joined me some moments later. "You haven't shifted since the ceremony." She says, sitting next to me and dips her hands too.

"I don't want to." I muttered, feeling low and not willing to do anything except letting out the anger and frustration.

"Because of the bond?" She again asks, clawing at my wound, which I'm trying to hide.

I didn't answer her, and this gives her a new point to fire at me.

"You're afraid?" She said and I looked up at her with a frown.

"Afraid of what?" I ask, cocking my eyebrows at her.

"Of what he makes you feel." Mira not only knows about herbs to heal a wound, she clearly knows how to hit critical wounds too.

I laughed bitterly and shook my head. "He makes me feel like destroying everything. Even me."

Mira sighs, pressing a hand on my shoulder. "Anger is still a feeling. It means you care."

"I don't care." I retort, squinting my eyes at her.

"You do." She scoffs, smugly looking at me and gets up to leave. "Calm yourself down and come back, strong and independent, like always."

The moon had begun to rise by the time I left the stream. Pale silver light spilled over the camp, making the tents glow. I sat outside mine, watching the trees shift like shadows with secrets.

I pressed my fingers to the bond mark on my collarbone. It still pulsed faintly beneath the surface, like a warning I couldn't escape.

"I hate him." I whisper, don't know if I'm trying to convince myself or stating a fact.

But hate wasn't the same as indifference.

The sound of howling shattered the stillness, low and close. My heart leapt into my throat. I stood, drawing my dagger in my hand.

"Stay alert!" I called out.

Cera and Jax emerged, weapons in hand. David and Alex were already by the perimeter.

But the howling faded.

False alarm.

Still, my skin crawled.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay curled in my blankets, staring at the ceiling of my tent, every breath heavy. When I did drift off, my dreams were filled with fire. Smoke. My father's voice. And Kaiden's eyes, dark and full of something I don't understand.

Not rage. No pity.

It's like....Grief?

I woke up startled in the middle of the night, my heart racing against my ribcage, as I rubbed my collarbone to calm down.

The bond still burned. Low. Steady. Undeniable. The Moon had tied me to my enemy.

And I didn't know whether I wanted to kill him... or scream his name.

But I did know one thing. I would never let him be the one to break me.

Never.

CHAPTER 5

ARIA'S POV

The morning after the false howl, I woke before the sun, or to be specific I didn't sleep much peacefully.

Sleep had offered no solace. My dreams had been filled with flickers of firelight and ashes, my father's voice a fading whisper. Every time I reached for him, he disappeared. Always the same. Always gone.

I threw off my blanket and stepped outside my tent. The frost was heavier today. The earth was hard under my bare feet, grounding me in the moment.

Something inside me shifted last night. Not because of the howling or the bond, but because of the memory that came with it, a whisper of a place, a symbol carved into stone.

My father's study.

I hadn't thought about it in years. The last time I was in there, he was standing by the fire, cloaked in silence. I was just a girl then, clutching a broken arrow and tears I hadn't let fall. He told me stories of the High Council. Of betrayal. Of something hidden deep beneath the Ashborne estate.

A secret he said would change everything.

And suddenly, I knew I had to go back.

'Cera." I called, ducking into her tent. She groaned and pulled a blanket over her head, as I tried to pull away.

"It's barely dawn." She mutters sleepily, irritation dipping from her tone.

"I need you with me. We're going back to the ruins." I say, tucking her blanket.

That got her attention.

"You mean... Ashborne lands?" She asks and I nod my head, looking at her with determination. If she doesn't agree to go with me then, I will go alone, but I will definitely go.

She sat up, all traces of sleep gone as she looked at me with widened eyes. "Why? I mean all of a sudden!" She asks in confusion and curiously.

"I need to find something. Something my dad left for me." I said. Cera quickly gets up and we get ready to leave, strapping weapons for any situation and tricks to get away if there's any problem.

We left before sunrise, just the two of us. I told David to hold camp until we returned, but I saw the concern in his eyes. "Don't get caught." He warned, before we left.

The Ashborne lands were half a day's run northeast. We shifted at the edge of camp, our wolves tearing through the frost with practiced ease. Mine, silver gray eyes like storm clouds, was silent, focused. Cera's was smaller, faster, but never strayed far.

By the time we reached the outer ridge, the sun was rising in the sky and the wind was sharp.

The Ashborne estate was barely recognizable. Vines choked the blackened walls, and the stone steps were cracked with age. But the bones of the house remained.

My chest ached just looking at it. It's in the worst situation ever. My home. I couldn't believe that my home, where I grew up, is in this state.

"Are you sure?" Cera asked.

"No..." I whispered. "But I have to try." I say, taking a deep breath and stares at the house.

We crept through the remains, the echoes of my childhood everywhere. The great hall where I'd learned to fight. The library where my mother read ancient scrolls to me by candlelight. All of it ruined.

But the study....

It was mostly intact.

The heavy desk still stood, charred but solid. Bookshelves lined the walls, some crumbling, others still holding scraps of parchment.

I crossed to the far wall.

There, hidden behind a shattered painting, was a crest carved into the stone: Ashborne's true sigil. Not the one the Council approved, but the original. The forbidden one.

A crescent moon flanked by twin wolves.

I pressed my hand to it.

Click!

A small panel slid open in the wall, revealing a black leather book and a wrapped bundle of parchment.

My hands trembled as I opened the book first. It was my father's journal.

The first few pages were filled with battle maps, political names, and then... his words:

"The High Council knew. They feared the prophecy. They feared the Ashborne bloodline would awaken what they buried. But the Blackridge Alpha... he knew the truth. He knew, and still, he chose silence. Kaiden Blackthorn's father made a deal to keep the secret buried. And Kaiden was just a boy. But he watched. And one day, he will have to choose."

I froze. My mind numb, I can't think of anything but the words and the man, who knew everything and has a part in it too.

Kaiden knew.

He knew what they did to my father. He knew the truth behind the betrayal. He fucking knew that my dad was innocent.

And he said nothing.

Kaiden fucking Blackthorn hadn't said a word in favour of my father. He took his father's side and watched my father suffer and my whole family's downfall.

My breath caught, anger rising fast. He watched my family fall and said nothing. He stays silent, and watches, just watches.

But do you know the worst part?

Something in me still wanted to believe he could have chosen differently. He could have his own reason.

I unwrapped the bundle. A map leading deep beneath the estate, marked only with a phrase: "To awaken the old bond, find the fire buried in shadow."

"What is it?" Cera asked, looking over my shoulder in the map, and frowning not understanding anything.

"Proof." I said. "And maybe something more." When I stood, the wind had shifted. Snow began to fall. But my rage was hotter than ever.

Kaiden had rejected me. But now... I would uncover the secrets he helped bury. The secret, he doesn't let it out, but not anymore.

Because now I'm standing in his way, ready to bring out every secret he has buried, and I will not stop at anything.

Even if it meant destroying whatever was left of the bond.

Even if it meant to destroy him.

CHAPTER 6

KAIDEN'S POV

I felt it the moment she stepped onto Ashborne land.

The bond muted and distant these past few days flared like a spark in my chest. Pain, laced with something sharper than longing. It burned through me, waking the wolf I'd been trying to silence since the ceremony.

My hands trembled where they rested on the table, war maps forgotten. The air in the war room thickened, my breath catching like smoke in my throat.

"Aria." I muttered, clenching my fists tightly and closing my eyes in frustration, trying to calm my breathing.

Elias, my Beta, lifted his head. "What is it?"

"She's back. In the ruins." I answer him, feeling the pain in my chest increasing second by second.

His eyebrows frown in disbelief as he stares at me. "That's suicide. If she gets caught then..." He words trails off, and I know what he's going to say.

"She won't be caught." I said. She can't get caught. "She's not that foolish." I don't know if I'm telling him or myself.

He studied me for a beat, then returned to the map. "Are you going after her?" He asks and I lean back on my seat.

"I don't know." I muttered, not sure what to do.

"You do." I hear him saying quietly. "You always do when it's about her." He adds and I look at him.

My jaw clenched tightly. "That doesn't mean I should." I growled, getting up from my seat.

"No." Elias replied. "It means you can't stay away. Away from her. Or away from the truth. That you and her are bound together for life."

I left the room in silence, the stone halls of Blackridge echoing with my steps. The guards parted as I passed, no one daring to speak. I was Alpha, but right now, I didn't feel like a leader. I felt like a storm held barely in check.

The stables were quiet. My horse snorted when he saw me, sensing my unrest. I barely saddled him before swinging onto his back, heart thundering like hooves.

As I rode toward the Ashborne estate, snow began to fall in slow, lazy spirals. The wind whispered through the trees, brushing against my skin like a warning. My wolf prowled inside me, every stride of the horse making the bond throb harder.

She was close. I could feel her.

The ruins loomed ahead like a broken crown. Blackened stone towers, scorched doorframes, cracked windows staring out like hollow eyes. Time hadn't been kind to the Ashborne land. Neither had we.

I dismounted from my horse and moved toward the main hall.

The moment I stepped inside, her scent hit me like lightning, Moonlight and pine. Smoke and fire. Her. It clung to the air, fresh and fierce. She had been here. Recently. My heart lurched in my throat.

Elias's words echoed in my mind: 'You always do when it's about her.'

I followed the trail through the ruined halls, my boots crunching over old ash and shattered glass. The study door hung off one hinge as I stepped inside.

She'd found the panel. The hidden one behind the sigil. My father's secret. The secret that has been hidden for years. But now?

The journal was gone.

So was the map.

I leaned against the scorched wall, the ghost of her presence still alive in the air. I closed my eyes and breathed her in.

"She knows." I whispered, closing my eyes and breathing her lingering scent in the air.

A memory surged: the night her father died. His last words, spoken in fury and desperation, meant something to me. Only me.

"Protect her. One day, she'll awaken the fire they fear."

I hadn't understood then.

But now I do.

I moved to the desk and opened the false drawer. Empty. She'd taken it all. The scrolls. The coded glyphs. Everything my father spent his life hiding.

Footsteps approached and I knew who it was, without seeing him. Elias had followed me to here.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked, looking at me carefully. I can feel his gaze on my every action as I tried to check everything.

"I don't know what choice I have." I replied honestly, because I seriously have no idea what to do.

"You always have a choice." Elias said as he stepped beside me. "You chose to stay silent before. Will you do it again?"

I stared at him, guilt gnawing at my gut. "I was seventeen. What could I have done?" I tried to reason with him but I, myself, don't feel confident in that.

"You could've spoken. stood up for her. Fought for her. You were Alpha even then." He says and I clench my fists, because he's brutally right.

"I was afraid." I admit, looking out of the window, trying to catch even the slightest sight of her. Just her.

"And now?" Elias asks, stopping me dead in my steps.

I didn't answer. Because the truth was, I still was.

But maybe this time, the fear wouldn't win.

I stepped into the snow, with Elias on my heels, watching the wind twist through the broken estate. Somewhere out there, she carried the truth. And soon, she'd come for answers.

Or for blood. My blood.

"Aria." I whispered her name into the wind, wishing I had chosen a different path years ago.

If I had chosen her.

And the fire between us would finally ignite.