Laura was still seething when the Moon Match ended, and it showed in the way she walked out of the hall with her chin high and her hands clenched at her sides, her eyes too bright with rage for someone who had just been given a mate. She didn't cry or scream or cause a scene, but I knew her well enough to understand that the Moon pairing her with a regular wolf, someone she considered beneath her, had humiliated her more than any insult ever could.

  I stayed close to Sage as we slipped away from the crowd and headed back toward the omega quarters, keeping my head down even though I could feel the stares pressing into my back. Everyone had heard my name spoken alongside Sean Valen's, and no matter how hard I tried not to think about it, his face kept replaying in my mind, the way his mouth had twisted when the shaman said it, like he'd tasted something rotten, like he wanted to spit.

  Inside my small room, Sage shut the door and leaned against it, then turned to face me. The space smelled faintly of soap and damp stone, familiar and small, the only place in the pack where I ever felt even slightly safe.

  "Kyra," she said gently, "breathe."

  I sat down on the edge of the bed, pressing my hands together, trying to still the shaking in my fingers but it wasn't working. "Do you think he'll come?" I asked, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

  Sage's expression softened in a way that made my chest ache, like she already knew how fragile my hope was. "Mates are mates," she said carefully. "Maybe he just needs time."

  I nodded because I needed that to be true, because believing it felt easier than facing what might happen if it wasn't.

  Then a knock on the door came hard and fast.

  Sage froze, then pushed herself away from the door and opened it, sean Valen stood there.

  He looked wrong in the omega quarters, too tall and broad for the narrow hallway, too clean and powerful for the thin walls and cold floors. Power and authority clung to him naturally, like the world had shaped itself to fit him. His dark hair was slightly messy, his jaw tight, and when his eyes landed on me, there was no softness in them at all, then his scent hit me.

  Warm pine and clean rain filled my chest in a way that made my breath hitch, something deep and dizzy pulling at me before I could stop it, like my body had been waiting for him even when my mind knew better. My stomach twisted painfully.

  My mate, he was my mate . A big strong Alpha like him was my mate, that thought ran through my mind over and over. 

  Sage stepped back and swallowed. "Alpha you're -"

  Sean didn't even look at her,his eyes yes we're still on me. "Leave." She hesitated, her eyes flicking to me, worry written all over her face. "It's fine," I said quickly, even though my heart was racing and my hands were shaking again. I didn't want him to see me like this before he even spoke.

  Sage stepped out, and Sean shut the door behind her. The sound of it closing made the room feel smaller, like the air itself had left the room too.

  He stared at me for a long moment, and without thinking, I stood and smoothed my plain dress, hating myself for the instinct, for the foolish hope that maybe looking composed could make me worth choosing.

  "Sean," I said quietly.

  He laughed, not in surprise and not in warmth, but in disbelief, like the Moon itself had played a cruel joke on him, something inside me faltered.

  "This is sick," he said, the laugh still lingering in his voice. "This is a sick joke, the Moon pairing me with you." My throat tightened, I could feel my tears rising at the back of my eyes. "Why?" I asked, my voice breaking despite my effort to hold it together. "I didn't do anything. I'm your fated mate-"

  He crossed the room so fast I barely had time to register it before his hand closed around my throat and slammed me back against the wall.

  Pain shot through my shoulders and spine as the air vanished from my lungs. My hands flew up, clutching at his wrist, but it was useless, like trying to move iron with bare fingers. His grip tightened as I struggled, black spots dancing at the edges of my vision.

  "There's no way I'm accepting you," he said quietly, his eyes dark and unforgiving. "A filthy omega. A wolfless cunt."Tears burned in my eyes, born of panic and shame, and my body began to give in, my strength slipping away as he showed no mercy at all.

  When he released me, it was sudden. I sucked in air violently, coughing as he shoved me aside, and I hit the floor hard, pain flaring in my hip and shoulder. Before I could even try to move, his hand tangled in my hair and yanked my head back. I cried out, tears spilling freely now, my scalp burning.

  "You don't deserve the bond," he hissed. "You don't deserve my name. You don't deserve to stand in the same circle as me you mutt."

  My chest ached so badly it felt like it was already breaking apart. He straightened, his voice rising, loud and clear, as if he wanted the Moon itself to bear witness.

  "I, Sean Valen, reject Kyra Hale as my mate."

  Something inside me tore open, the pain came sharp and sudden, like claws ripping through my ribs, stealing my breath and blurring my vision. I screamed because my body couldn't hold it in, because the bond breaking felt like my heart was being split in two.I collapsed forward, shaking and sobbing, the cold floor biting into my palms as Sean looked down at me with nothing but disgust, he spat on me and walked out.

  The room spun violently, my throat burning, my chest feeling empty and bleeding all at once. I tried to lift my head, but the darkness rolled in too fast, too heavy. I couldn't hear or feel anything anymore, all I was met with was a high pitch spun in my ear. 

  I don't know for how long I was out, but I woke to hands shaking me. "Kyra," Sage whispered urgently. "Kyra, wake up." I blinked, confused, my body screaming in pain as I tried to sit up. I I wished I could all be a dream, but it wasn't, Sean rejected me. "They're coming," she said, her face pale with fear. "You need to run." 

  "Who?" I whispered, still trembling. "The warriors," she said, her voice cracking. "They're saying you tried to kill the Alpha for Sean rejecting you." I stared at her, disbelief crashing into me. "What? how ? I was here. He rejected me, I-"

  "I know," she said quickly. "But Rowan is with them. They want you dead. Kyra, you have to run." A shout echoed outside, close enough to freeze my blood.Sage grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. "There's no time for you to sulk, Go. Now. Out the back."

  My legs barely held me, but fear kept me moving. I stumbled through the back door and into the night, the cold air slapping my face as voices rose behind me.

  "Kyra!"

  More joined in, sharp and hungry. What was going on? And why would they make such allegations against me. 

  I ran, I had no  wolf, my body was weak from the rejection, and my chest still felt torn open, but I ran anyway, throwing myself into the dark because Silver Fang had turned into a hunt.

  And I knew, with a sick certainty, that if they caught me, I wouldn't see morning.

    I ran and ran until my lungs felt like they were tearing, my throat burned even more but I still didn't stop because the footsteps behind me never stopped either and even without a wolf I knew what it sounded like when hunters were enjoying it. 

    I could hear them clearer now along with snapping branches and their boots hitting the ground, when I glanced back I saw shapes between the trees. I looked forward again and kept going, not thinking just running where my instincts led me. my head was still spinning from the rejection and my tears kept blurring my sight, I wasnt able to where I was going, until foot caught on a root hidden under leaves. 

   I tumbled over ,when I tried to catch myself the ground vanished. I went over a small ledge and rolled down hard. The rocks cut into my arms and legs as dirt filled my mouth. The pain sparked through my shoulder and I couldn't even tell where I was tumbling to. It didn't stop until my back hit something solid and the air slammed out of me. 

    " Ah, " I gasped, hoping no one heard. I lay there for one second, panting and gasping for air but it all just tasted like blood. Everything hurt, but there was no time to feel it the footsteps were still coming. With the strength I had left I forced myself up, my ankle screamed when I put weight on it, but I bit back a sound and limped forward, half stumbling, half running. My eyes darting through the trees like an animal looking for a hole to crawl into and that's when I saw it. A dark opening in a rocky wall ahead, a cave, it was a cave. 

    I should have been scared of it, because caves were where you got trapped and died in the dark with no one hearing you. But something about it pulled at me, like it was the only place the forest wanted me to go, like the air itself was pushing me toward it. My skin started to prickle and I didn't understand why. I only knew the voices were close now, and I needed to disappear. With that, I staggered toward the cave and squeezed inside. 

    The moment I stepped in, the air change. The air Inside was cold stone and it felt like the cave was holding its breath. I paused my chest heaving and tried to name the feeling but I couldn't. It was like walking into a place that didn't belong to the world, a whole new dimension. 

    I moved deeper and crouched behind a large rock, pulling my knees to my chest like that could make me smaller. At first, I still heard them, slowly their voices turned into nothing. I pressed a hand over my mouth and took a careful breath, trying not to sob, trying not to make any sound at all. For one small moment, I thought I was safe,then a voice spoke from the dark behind me. 

    " Oh my, I haven't had company in years." 

    My whole body jerked, I scrambled backward on the stone floor so fast I scraped my palms, my heart slamming so hard it hurt. I spun,try to see, but the cave was as black as night and my eyes were still watery, was I just hearing things,  my mind refused to accept what I'd heard. 

  But I was wrong, a man stood in the centre of the cave. No, not stood, he was held there. Chains wrapped around him thick and dark, crossing his chest, his arms, his waist, his legs, and they were bolted into the rock like roots, like someone had built the cave around him on purpose. There were more restraints around his wrists and biceps, tight enough that even if he moved the metal would  bite into skin. Some parts looked like iron, some like stone, and the locks didn't look like normal locks they looked sealed, like they weren't meant to ever open. 

   Around the chains, a dark fog hovered curling and clinging to the metal.  The man , he was big his shoulders were wide, arms thick with muscle he looked  like a warrior. His hair was long, falling in tangled waves past his shoulders, and his beard was heavy, hiding part of his face, but I could still make out wat he looked like. He was handsome, even like this,that thought made me feel stupid and sick, because handsome didn't mean safe. His scent hit me but it was faint

   "Wh... who are you," I managed, my voice cracking. The man's mouth lifted slightly, not a friendly smile just a curve that made my skin crawl. "I should be asking you that," he said. I swallowed, eyes fixed on the chains like they might suddenly fly at me. "I'm not here to hurt you," I whispered, because I didn't know what else to say. 

  He watched me like I was something interesting. I shifted back another inch, ready to run, but the cave felt different now. My chest tightened between wanting to get out and wanting to understand why he was here,why would someone chain a man like this. 

  Before I could think more, a sound drifted from outside, I could hear voices and they weren't too far, that made my blood turned to ice."They're here," I whispered, more to myself than to him. The man's gaze flicked toward the mouth of the cave, then back to me. "I can help you," he said. 

     I furrowed my brows trying to understand him, it was obvious his state couldn't help any of us . He nodded toward a rock on the ground "set me free ," he said, voice calm, "and I'll protect you." 

  My hands shook . "No," I breathed. "I don't even know you."  The voices outside grew louder for a second, and my pulse raced so hard my chest hurt. His eyes  didn't leave mine. "Use it," he said, nodding at the rock again. "Knock out that end. Once I'm free, I'll protect you." 

    I don't know why but I listened, maybe fear makes you stupid or just maybe part of me wanted to believe someone powerful could stand between me and the pack for once. Whatever it was, my body moved before my mind finished arguing. I grabbed the rock, it was rough and heavy in my hands. 

    I stepped toward him, close enough to smell him properly now, close enough to see the way dirt and old blood stained his skin, close enough to see his eyes clearly. They were dark, not brown or black, but dark like night water, like something deep that didn't show what was at the bottom. 

  I lifted the rock with both hands and struck the chain where he had nodded. I hit it once and the sound rang through the cave. I hit it  the second time and it hissed like it was angry. My arms trembled but something kept pushing me to strike. I raised the rock above my head and struck it for the third time and the chain snapped. 

   It loosened and his hand slid free. For a second he didn't move, like he was tasting it, like he was letting the feeling sink into his bone and then he laughed. A low, broken sound at first, then louder, and it wasn't relief, it wasn't joy, it felt wrong, like the kind of laugh you hear right before something bad happens. His eyes darkened even more, and his smile widened, every hair on my body rose. 

  This man was chained for a reason , that thought hit me so hard it made me dizzy. I stepped back, clutching the rock like it could save me. "No," I said, my voice shaking. "That's enough." He turned his freed hand slowly, flexing his fingers like he'd forgotten how. "Come on," he said, still smiling. "Set me free."  He laughed again and again, it echoed off the stone until it felt like the cave was laughing with him. 

   He tugged at the chains, and the sound of metal groaning filled the dark. He pulled once, hard, and the cuff at his forearm cracked, and then his whole arm slid free like the chains were finally giving up. 

    My stomach flipped, fear gripped me and I backed toward the cave mouth, panic swallowing everything. "I can't," I whispered, and then louder, "I can't." His gaze snapped to me, my mouth ran dry . I turned and ran, still limping and stumbling out of the cave, not caring if the hunters saw me, not caring about anything except getting away from him. 

  Behind me, his voice followed,"I'll find you..." 

    The rest of his words faded as I got near the opening and all I heard was my own ragged breathing and the pounding of my heart as I fled, terrified that I had just made the worst mistake of my life.

  My freedom tasted so sweet. I laughed, low at first, then louder, because the sound of it filled my chest and made the cave feel smaller, it felt like I was going to die and rot in there, not when the Moon finally decided to stop watching and start moving pieces on the board. 

    "The prophecy," I muttered, voice rough from disuse. For years I had wondered if it was a lie the witches fed packs to keep them obedient, or a story told to frighten young alphas into staying in line, but tonight a girl had stumbled into my prison like she had been pulled by a string, and when her hands touched my chains the world shifted. 

    Was it a gift or a curse? It was a blessing I had waited too long for. I rolled my freed wrist, feeling blood rush back into my hand, feeling pain and life together, and the fog that clung to the chains hissed and curled because it knew I was finally free.

    I lifted my head, eyes fixed on the cave mouth where she had fled. "I'll find you, mate." Mate, saying it felt right, like the words belonged to my tongue even though I thought I'd never utter those words till my last breath. 

    Five years, five whole years of darkness and silence, since the Lycan witches took me out and the world turned on me as if I was a monster they had always expected me to be. I was accused of a crime I did not commit, they said I turned on my own people and that I did it all for power. So they chained me here, deep in the forbidden forest, in a cave sealed tight with magic, a place where no outsider was meant to enter. 

   They told my pack I was dead and crowned another letting my bloodline rot. The only way out was simple and impossible at the same time. Only Lycan witch blood could set me free or the mate bond. The witches would never free me and I couldn't escape, the cave was sealed in a way that anyone outside wouldn't be able to track or smell my scent. And no one would be able to see the entrance with their bare eyes. So only one thing could and she had done it without even knowing. 

    My mind drifted back to her face as if it had been branded onto my eyes. My precious mate, my little dive.

    She had looked at me with terror and heartbreak mixed together, like she had been hurt so many times she didn't know how to trust even her own choices. Her hair had been messy she looked like she was from running, strands stuck to her cheeks. Her lips were pale. Her eyes were huge and shining with tears she didn't have time to wipe away. She was bBeautiful, yes, but looked for fraile. 

   And her scent... It hit me even now when I thought about it, cherry blossom and honey with a hint of mint, it was mine, she was mine. It called to my wolf like a command and my wolf woke up, howling and chanting like crazy. But what bothered me, what stayed sharp in my mind, was the way she didn't react when I spoke the word mate. Like she couldn't feel it, how could a mate not feel it and why was she running in the first place, why was she bleeding and why did she move like someone who was being hunted. 

    I had so many questions and I would get answers later. First, I needed my pack, I needed to reclaim what they stole and burn the ones who put me here. I set my feet against the rock and pulled. The chains groaned and the fog hissed as metal bit into my skin. I didn't care, I was a chain away from freedom. I pulled again, harder, letting rage fill the space where despair used to sit. The restraints cracked one by one, bolts ripping from stone with sharp sounds that echoed through the cave. Pain lanced up my arms, but pain meant I was alive. 

    When the last chain snapped the fog scattered,

   I threw my head back and laughed, then I howled, and the sound rolled out of the cave mouth into the forest like a warning to every living thing that had forgotten my name, Draven Blackwood is back. 

    My body remembered the forest as if it had never been chained. My muscles screamed at first, stiff from years of stillness, but the more I moved the more the world came back to me. Trees blurred, dirt flew under my feet and cold air filled my lungs and tasted like revenge. 

    Duskwood's border hit my senses before I saw it and there it was, my pack, my land. The scent markers were wrong and faint neglected if I must say. another male's claim layered over mine like an insult. I bared my teeth as I crossed and the first wolves who caught my scent froze and their eyes went wide. I didn't slow down, I tore through the trees and up the path that led to the pack house, and when I reached the front gates, guards stumbled back like they'd seen a ghost. 

    The doors opened to chaos as gasps erupted inside the great hall, with voices rising and bodies shifting they all stepped back in fear and disbelief.

   I walked in like I had never left, like the last five years were nothing. A figure moved at the front of the hall, turning slowly and behold stood my brother and worst enemy Lucian. 

   He wore the Alpha crest and he stood where I used to stand, that was a fucking slap to my face. 

    His eyes narrowed, then widened and hardened again, like he had prepared for this moment in nightmares but still didn't know what to do with it in real life. For one second, the room felt like it held its breath ready for the havoc I was about to unleash .

    "Hello, brother," I said, voice steady, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Happy to see me?" 

    Lucian's mouth tightened. "H-how ? You're supposed to be dead," he snapped, a few wolves murmured, trembling. I took a step forward. "Not dead," I said. "Just inconvenient." Lucian's jaw flexed. "Why have you returned traitor ? You should have stayed where they put you." 

   "They," I repeated, tasting the word. "You mean the witches you invited into my home." His eyes flashed. "Watch your mouth." 

   "Or what," I said, and the hall felt smaller with my dominance. "You'll order your guards to chain me again?" Lucian's hand went to the blade at his hip. Mine was already in my hand and the room erupted into movement, wolves backed away some shouting, some trying to step in, but no one was fast enough to stop what had been waiting to happen for five years. 

    Lucian lunged and I met him halfway, the steel collided and rang as we crashed into each other like two storms and all I could see was his face, my brother's face, twisted with anger and fear and something else beneath it. Probably Guilt,we struggled, blades locked, breath harsh, shoulders slamming into pillars, and he hissed, "You don't understand what you were becoming." 

   I shoved him back. "And you don't understand what I'm going to become now." He swung again, I stepped inside the strike and drove my blade across his throat,it was too quick and shockingly easy. Lucian's eyes went wide. His hands flew up, fingers pressing to the wound as blood spilled between them. He made a wet sound, trying to speak and dropped to his knees. 

   The hall went silent, the kind of silence that makes even wolves afraid to breathe, lucian fell forward and didn't move. I stood over him, blood on my hand with my chest rising and falling and I felt nothing but the calm that comes after a decision you have waited too long to make. 

    I turned to the trembling guards, "Call the pack elders," I ordered. "And the shaman too." No one moved at first." And get him a doctor, he is still alive he can't die this easily..... where's the fun in that." My gaze swept the room. "Now," I said and they scattered, rushing to obey. 

    I looked over the hall, over the faces that had watched my fall and accepted my replacement, and my voice cut through them like a blade. 

    "Tell everyone your Alpha has returned."