•Amara's POV

My mouth went dry.

I stilled, the knife in my hands almost dropping at the familiar voice.

"It is Rowan. I am here to help."

My heart nearly stopped.

Rowan?

Kade's beta, and the man who had stood beside us at the mating ceremony.

The same one who had watched as Kade had destroyed me five years ago?

Or do those monsters I had fought have powers to mimick voices?

"How do I know it is really you?" I called out without breaking my protective stance.

"You used to sneak into the kitchen at night to steal honey cakes," he said.

Despite everything, I almost smiled because that was definitely Rowan.

"I always pretended not to notice."

"What are you-"

The sound of a piercing scream stopped me short and I heard something lunge.

Rowan grunted and I realized he was the one who was being attacked outside.

I heard the sounds of the fight.

There were snarls and the sound of claws on flesh, also bodies hitting the ground.

Then there was silence.

"It is safe now, Amara," Rowan said with a breathless voice. "May I come in?"

I looked back at Milo.

He was staring between me and the door with those flickering gold eyes.

Then I slowly opened it.

Rowan stepped inside from the darkness and I had to bite back a gasp.

He looked like he had fought an army.

And behind him, I could see eleven other wolves cleaning blood off their claws.

"Hello, Amara," he said gently. "You look good."

I laughed.

"I look like hell and we both know it. What are you doing here, Rowan?"

His looked at Milo and I saw the recognition that instantly flickered across his face.

But, he said nothing.

"We have been tracking the rogues that attacked you back home," he said.

That explained his appearance.

"What are those rogues?" I asked, flipping my hair over my shoulders.

"Amara, those are not rogue wolves."

I had noticed that.

"They are being controlled by something and being used to hunt specific targets."

"What kind of targets?" I demanded with brows quirked in confusion.

"They hunt children."

"Children?"

"Yes, those with Alpha bloodlines."

My blood turned cold.

"They are hunting Alpha children?" I asked him with wide eyes.

He nodded.

"Seven packs in total have lost children from alpha families between the ages of four and eight in the past month."

I gaped, unsure wether to scream or collapse from the shock.

"Their trail led us to your apartment. But you attacked quickly. And then here."

His gaze moved back to Milo.

"I think we both know why they came for him," he said as he looked at me.

My heart began to pound in my chest.

It was obvious.

The palpable tension was unbearable and almost insurmountable at this point.

The silence was thick and suffocating and I knew that I needed to say something.

But before I could respond to Rowan, Milo suddenly began to convulse.

His small body shook violently.

His eyes rolled back, showing only white before he collapsed onto the cot.

"Milo!" I rushed to him. "What is happening to you?" I cried out in anguish.

Rowan knelt beside us and studied the rune that were shining on the child's skin.

"The same thing had happened to the other children before they disappeared."

Fear gripped me.

"Something was calling to them like this and vehemently trying to take control."

Milo's eyes suddenly snapped open, but they weren't gold this time.

They were a solid black just like the rogues who had attacked us earlier.

I gasped in astonishment.

"The children hear the call," he began to say in the old language.

The voice wasn't his own.

"Soon we will all be together."

"No," I whispered, shaking him gently. "Milo fight it please, stay with me."

I embraced him tightly, tears rushing down my cheeks and I held unto him.

"Mom?" he whispered weakly.

I instantly drew back to look at him.

He was normal again.

"Mom I feel strange."

"You'll be fine Milo. Mommy will protect you," I assured him softly.

Rowan placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Amara, you need to bring him home to Silvergrove. It is his only chance."

"No!" I spat out my disagreement in a sharp voice. "I will never go back there."

Roman sighed.

"You have to Amara."

"And face Kade?" I snapped. "The mate who rejected me and called me worthless?"

He shook his head.

"I know how you feel Amara. But only the pack healers know how to fight against this ancient kind of dark magic."

"I will not," I said as I hugged Milo tighter.

Rowan's expression softened. "Kade doesn't know about the boy, does he?"

I looked down at Milo and realized that he had fallen unconscious again.

"No, and I plan to keep it that way."

"Amara, look at me."

I did.

"The child is innocent in what happened between you and Kade. He needs the help that only the pack can provide."

His voice was gentle.

"Don't deny him that because his father decided to be a fool," he added.

I closed my eyes in a bid to stop the tears that threatened to spill over.

Going back to Silvergrove meant facing everything I had run away from.

It meant seeing Kade and explaining why I had hidden his son from him.

But one look at Milo's pale face and I knew that I didn't really have a choice.

I had to do this.

"Fine, for Milo," I whispered. "But if Kade tries to take him away from me-"

"He won't," Rowan assured me in a firm voice. "I will make sure of that."

•Amara's POV

Abiut an hour later, I was sitting in the back seat of Rowan's SUV.

I held Milo against my chest.

We drove through the territories that I had sworn never to see again.

My wolf stirred restlessly as she recognized every scent and every landmark.

Milo mumbled in his fever, speaking names that I had been trying to forget.

He wa having visions, maybe.

My heart clenched.

He was remembering things that I should have through the bloodline.

The memories that he was seeing and speaking of weren't even his own.

Most of them were mine.

Rowan glanced at me through the rearview mirror with a troubled expression.

"The bloodline memories are surfacing and it is not normal for a child his age."

"Nothing about this is normal," I muttered with an annoyed tone.

Rowan shook his head as we approached the border of the Silvergrove pack.

I could see that guard posts mist had been erected ever since I had left.

Two wolves stepped out from them with their faces hard with suspicion.

"Beta Rowan," one of them said.

They leaned in through the window with their eyes staring to the back.

"The Alpha has given orders that there should be no strangers in the pack."

"This isn't a stranger," Rowan replied.

"Is she not?" The guard mused.

"This is Amara Nightshade. And she is a former Luna of this pack."

The guards exchanged glances and I saw the recognition dawn on their faces.

I was sure that the both of them must be recalling my epic rejection ceremony.

"The Alpha didn't mention-" the older kf kv them started to say.

"The Alpha doesn't know about this either," Rowan interrupted him.

I watched them speak.

"And neither should anyone else until I have spoken with him. Are we clear?"

The guards nodded reluctantly.

They waved us through but I noticed they that they followed us at a distance.

Every tree and every stream in the pack was exactly as I had remembered.

Six years of exile instantly melted away as my wolf recognized her home.

But it still hurt me too much to feel anything but pain in this place.

And whose fault was it? Kade's, that bastard that had denied me happiness.

Wolves began to emerge from their houses as we drove deeper into pack territory.

They lined the roads while staring at the car with curiosity and whispers.

I heard fragments of their conversations through the open windows.

"The beta brought back visitors."

"Who are they?"

"What do they want here?"

I hugged Milo tighter to myself to shield him from their pointed stares.

They had forgotten me.

Not on either them realized that six years ago I was once their Luna.

Finally, the manor came into view and it looked exactly the same.

Rowan parked the car and quickly came around to help me out.

I clutched Milo against my chest, hoping he would stay unconscious a little longer.

But when I stepped out of the car, I realized that the manor wasn't the same.

That was because it reeked of Elara's scent and that was the difference.

My wolf whined at the wrongness of it.

She groused over the way another female marked what should have been mine.

But it was the figure on the front steps that made my heart stop completely.

Kade.

I recognized him even from that distance,

I could feel him through the bond that should have been severed years ago.

It was still humming beneath my skin like a constant ache I had learnt to ignore.

He was a little bit older.

His face was lined with responsibility and probably the stress of the crown.

But he was still the most beautiful man that I had ever seen in my life.

He was still the same man who had looked me in the eyes and destroyed me.

But as we approached the steps, the whispers around intensified.

Kade who had his back to us turned around and his gaze instantly locked with mine.

His eyes focused on me and suddenly they were widening in shock.

He began to approach me and my heart started to thump faster in my chest.

And when we were only about three foot away from each other, he halted.

"Amara."

Six years, and yet his voice still sent that familiar warmth racing through me.

Six years, and yet my wolf still burned badly with want and need for him.

Six years, and I was yet to forget how this man had wrecked me in bed.

Six years, and liquid magma still pooled down my thighs for him.

Six fucking years, and I still wanted this monster who had shredded me.

Six years, and yet I couldn't forget both the bad, the good and even the ugly.

I made to speak but then his gaze fell onto the child in my arms.

His face went completely white.

Milo had the same dark hair and the same stubborn chin that he had.

There was that same bone structure. There was no denying whose child he was.

I saw a flash of something that might have been regret flicker in his orbs.

"Is he mine?" Kade whispered.

His voice was barely audible.

I opened my mouth to answer him.

But before I could speak, Milo's eyes instantly snapped open.

They were completely black again.

And when he spoke, his voice belonged to something ancient and terrifying.

"The dark moon rises," he said in that otherworldly tone, "and the children must return home."