Charlotte POV:

The smell of smoke hit me first. Acrid, chemical.

I ran to the backyard. A bonfire raged on the lawn. Guards were tossing my paintings into the flames. I saw my seascape curl and blacken.

"Stop!" I screamed.

Haven stood near the fire, holding a silk handkerchief to her nose.

"Clearing out the trash," she said. "Making room for the nursery. Can't have the smell of failure lingering."

By burning my things, she was erasing my scent signature. Scrubbing my existence from the Pack.

"You didn't have to burn them," I whispered.

"And let you carry the Herrera shame with you?" She tossed a thick envelope onto the wet grass. "Going-away present."

I picked it up. The divorce papers. Signed. Aiden's signature was hasty, jagged.

"He didn't even read it," Haven gloated. "Told him it was a contract for waste disposal. He signed without blinking."

It should have hurt. Instead, I felt light. The legal tie was severed.

"Thank you," I said.

Haven's smile faltered. "You're pathetic. You'll be dead within a week."

"Maybe," I said. "But at least I won't be here."

I looked at her, really looked at her. "You've won a prize that is already broken, Haven. You think you control the beast? You just woke up something you can't put back to sleep."

"Get out," she hissed.

I grabbed my suitcase and walked toward the main gates. I was ten feet away when the sirens wailed. Perimeter alarm.

A black SUV skidded to a halt, blocking me. Aiden jumped out, looking frantic. Haven ran down the driveway behind me, screaming.

"Stop her! Don't let her leave!"

Charlotte POV:

Guards surrounded me.

"Where is he?" Aiden roared, grabbing my shoulders. "Where is Leo?"

"What?" I gasped.

"He's gone!" Haven shrieked. "She took him! I saw her talking to Rogues at the fence! She paid them to take my baby!"

"I haven't left the house in two days!" I yelled. "Check the tracker!"

Aiden froze, looking at my ankle. He pulled out his phone.

"She's right," he muttered. "Signal hasn't left the estate."

"She hacked it!" Haven cried. "She's a witch!"

"Alpha!" a guard shouted from the woods. "Found him!"

A guard emerged carrying a muddy, sulking Leo. "Hiding in the fox den. Wanted to see if you'd look for him."

Relief washed over Aiden. He crushed the boy in a hug. "You foolish pup."

I stood in the rain, forgotten. Haven had tried to get me killed with a kidnapping accusation. And Aiden believed it.

He looked at me. A flicker of... guilt? He reached out. "Lottie..."

I stepped back. "Don't."

Aiden looked torn between his sobbing mistress and his retrieved son. "Get Leo inside. Haven, go with them." He turned to me. "We will discuss this later."

"There is no later," I said, waving the divorce papers. "Goodbye, Aiden."

A taxi pulled up—I'd called it twenty minutes ago. I threw my suitcase in and climbed in.

"Rough night?" the driver asked.

"You have no idea."

We drove for five minutes into the dark forest bordering Pack lands. Suddenly, a hissing sound filled the car. White gas vented from the AC.

Wolfsbane.

Panic exploded. I tried the door handle. Locked. My limbs turned to lead.

The driver turned around, wearing a gas mask.

"Sorry, Luna. Orders are orders."

My vision blurred. The last thing I thought before darkness took me was that Haven didn't just want me gone. She wanted me dead.

Charlotte POV:

Pain.

Dull, throbbing, encompassing. I was hanging by my wrists from a rusted pipe in a warehouse smelling of mold and old blood. A heavy leather muzzle gagged me.

I struggled. The ropes were soaked in liquid silver, burning my skin. My dormant wolf whimpered, a dying candle.

The metal door creaked. Heavy footsteps.

Aiden walked into the light. But not the Aiden I knew.

Clothes torn. Skin flushed red. Eyes... gone. Replaced by pools of glowing, feral gold. No pupil, no iris. Pure beast.

"Rogue..." he growled. A vibration that rattled my bones.

Feral State. Someone had drugged him, stripped his humanity.

"Kill the threat," a voice whispered from a speaker. Haven, distorted. "She is the leader. She took the boy. Kill the threat."

Aiden roared. He didn't recognize me. My scent was masked by Wolfsbane and filth. To him, I was just the enemy who hurt his son.

He charged.

The first blow broke my ribs. I couldn't scream through the muzzle, only gurgle. He hit me again and again. A massacre. An Alpha against a human-weak female.

He slashed his claws across my stomach. White-hot fire.

I tried to push a thought to him. Aiden, it's me!

But the bond was silent. He grabbed my throat, slammed me against the brick wall.

"Die," he snarled.

My vision went black.

Satisfied the "enemy" was broken, the beast receded slightly. He dropped me. I crumpled, ropes snapping. He turned and stumbled out, gait uneven like a drunk.

He paused at the door, spotting the silver anklet in a pool of my blood. A flicker of confusion crossed his face. But the drug was too strong. He shook his head and vanished into the night.

I lay there for a long time.

I was going to die here.

No.

A voice echoed in my mind. Not a whimper. Deep. Ancient.

Get up.

A surge of heat erupted in my core. Not fever. Star fire. White light knit my ribs. The bleeding slowed. The pain became fuel.

I dragged myself to the wall. With a trembling finger, I dipped it into my own blood.

I wrote three words on the peeling paint.

I REJECT YOU.

"I, Charlotte Knox," I rasped through the ruined muzzle, "reject you, Aiden Herrera, as my mate."

Thunder cracked outside. I felt something snap inside me—a guillotine dropping. The connection was severed.

I stood up. Limping, bleeding, alone. But not empty.

I pushed open the back door and vanished into the storm.