Aria's POV
The rabbit is fast, but I'm faster.
My wolf lunges, silver fur flashing in the sunlight. Teeth snap around the creature's neck. One clean bite.
It goes limp.
I shift back to human form, gasping. My hands shake as I gather wood for a fire.
One week.
I've survived one week in neutral territory.
Seven days of hunting. Sleeping in caves. Running from rogues.
Seven days of being completely, utterly alone.
Except for the baby.
I press my hand to my stomach as I strike stones together. Sparks fly. The kindling catches.
"Just a little longer," I whisper. "We just need to survive a little longer."
But I'm lying.
I can feel myself getting weaker. The baby takes so much energy, and I'm not eating enough. Not sleeping enough.
My ribs show through my skin now. My hair is matted with dirt and blood. The clothes I was exiled in are torn and filthy.
I look like a rogue.
Maybe that's what I am now.
The rabbit cooks over the fire. The smell makes my stomach growl so loud it echoes off the cave walls.
I tear into the meat the moment it's done. Barely cooked. Still bloody. But I don't care.
I need food.
The baby needs food.
As I eat, something flickers at the edge of my memory.
A feeling I can't name.
I close my eyes and suddenly I'm somewhere else. Somewhere warm. Safe.
A woman's laugh. Kind eyes. Gentle hands braiding my hair.
"My sweet girl," she says. "You're so special. So loved."
"Mama?" I whisper.
But the memory shatters like glass.
Fire explodes in my mind. Screaming. So much screaming.
Hands grabbing me. Someone running. Smoke choking my lungs.
"Don't let them find her!" a man's voice roars. "Keep her safe!"
Then nothing.
Just darkness and the sound of my own crying.
I gasp and my eyes fly open.
My hands are shaking. The half-eaten rabbit falls from my grip.
What was that?
I've never remembered anything about my real family before. The Winters took me in when I was three years old. Said they found me wandering the forest alone.
But this memory—if it was a memory—felt real.
Fire. Screaming. People dying.
"You're so special," the woman's voice echoes.
"Special," I whisper bitterly. "Right. That's why I'm living in a cave eating raw rabbit."
My wolf stirs in my mind. She's been more active since the awakening. Stronger.
Those memories mean something, she says.
"They mean I was abandoned twice," I snap back. "Once by my real family. Once by the pack that raised me."
Or they mean you survived something terrible. Something important.
I don't want to think about it.
Can't afford to think about it.
All that matters now is surviving today. Then tomorrow. Then the next day.
One day at a time until this baby is born.
The fire burns down to embers. Night is coming.
I need more food.
My stomach is still empty despite the rabbit. The baby is hungry. Always hungry.
There's a pack territory three miles east. I've been watching their borders. They leave food sometimes—offerings to the Moon Goddess at boundary stones.
Stealing from pack lands is dangerous. Suicidal, even.
But I'm desperate.
I shift into my wolf form and run.
The silver in my fur gleams under the moonlight. I'm faster than I've ever been before. Stronger.
Whatever awakened inside me that night has changed everything.
But it's not enough.
I reach the boundary stones just after midnight. And yes—there's food.
Fresh deer meat. Bread. Even some fruit.
My mouth waters.
I creep forward, low to the ground. Every sense alert for danger.
Almost there.
My teeth close around the deer meat—
"ROGUE!"
A warrior bursts from the trees. Then another. Three of them.
I drop the meat and run.
"After it!" someone shouts.
Paws pound behind me. Getting closer.
I'm fast, but I'm weak from hunger. They're gaining.
A wolf lunges. Teeth snap inches from my tail.
I put on a burst of speed, my heart hammering. The baby—I have to protect the baby—
I cross back into neutral territory and they stop chasing.
Pack wolves won't follow rogues into no man's land. Too dangerous.
But I don't stop running until my lungs are on fire and my legs are shaking.
When I finally collapse, I'm miles from my cave.
And I have no food.
Nothing.
Tears burn my eyes. I shift back to human and curl into a ball on the forest floor.
"I'm sorry," I sob to my stomach. "I'm so sorry. I'm trying. I'm trying so hard."
But trying isn't enough.
I can feel it—the baby getting weaker. My body eating itself to keep the pregnancy alive.
We're dying.
Both of us.
I force myself to stand. Force my legs to move.
Have to get back to the cave. Have to find shelter before something finds me.
The abandoned den is close. I've used it before—a small hollow beneath a fallen tree.
I crawl inside and collapse.
My vision blurs. My whole body trembles with exhaustion.
This is it.
I'm going to die here. Alone. And my baby will die with me.
Dominic will never know. Never care.
"Please," I whisper to the Moon Goddess. "Please don't let my baby die. Whatever happens to me—please save my baby."
Darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision.
So tired.
So hungry.
So done fighting.
My eyes start to close—
Footsteps.
Outside the den.
My eyes snap open. My wolf snarls weakly in my mind.
Rogues. Has to be rogues.
Come to finish me off.
I try to shift, but I'm too weak. My body won't respond.
The footsteps get closer.
I brace myself. Ready for teeth. For pain.
For death.
A shadow blocks the entrance to the den.
I force my eyes to focus, expecting yellow rogue eyes.
But the voice that speaks makes my heart stop.
"Aria?"
I know that voice.
Gentle. Kind. Strong.
"Aria, child, are you in there?"
Luna Catherine.
Dominic's mother.
The woman who watched them exile me.
What is she doing here?
She crouches down and crawls into the den. The moonlight catches her face—lined with worry and something else.
Guilt.
"Oh, my dear girl," she breathes when she sees me. "What have we done to you?"
I try to speak but can't. My throat is too dry.
She reaches for me and I flinch back.
"Don't touch me," I rasp. "You... you let them... you let him..."
"I know." Tears shine in her eyes. "I know, and I'm so sorry. But Aria, you need to listen to me very carefully."
She pulls something from her pocket.
A rolled piece of paper. Old. Yellowed.
"I found this in the pack archives," she whispers. "Hidden. Buried under decades of records."
She unfolds it with shaking hands.
Even in the darkness, I can see what it is.
A birth certificate.
"Aria," Luna Catherine's voice cracks. "You're not who you think you are."
My heart pounds.
"What?"
"Your real name," she says, pointing to the faded writing, "is Aria Moonwhisper. And your parents..."
She looks at me with eyes full of shock and fear.
"Your parents were the Alpha and Luna of the Moonwhisper Pack. The most powerful pack in the entire region."
The world tilts.
"That's impossible," I whisper.
"They were slaughtered sixteen years ago. Every single member of the pack was killed. Murdered."
The memory flashes—fire, screaming, my mother's voice—
"The official story was that rogues attacked," Luna Catherine continues. "But this document... it suggests something else."
"What?"
She meets my eyes.
"Aria, I think someone inside the pack alliance ordered the attack. Someone wanted your family dead. And they've been hiding the fact that you survived."
My mind spins.
Alpha bloodline. Powerful pack. Massacre.
"Who?" I breathe. "Who would do that?"
Luna Catherine's face goes pale.
"I don't know. But whoever it was..." She grips my shoulders. "They're still out there. And if they find out you're alive—if they find out you're pregnant with an Alpha heir—"
A twig snaps outside the den.
We both freeze.
Luna Catherine's eyes widen with fear.
"They followed me," she whispers in horror. "Oh gods, they followed me."
"Who?" I ask desperately.
But I already know the answer when I hear the voice outside.
Cold. Familiar. Deadly.
"Well, well," Marcus says. "Isn't this interesting."