Aria didn't stop running until her lungs boiled and the trees clouded together in the dark.
She didn't know where she was going. She only knew she required distance—distance from the clearing, from the wolves, from him. Each step away from the pack grounds sent a fresh tip of pain through her chest, like hidden claws digging in and dragging her back.
The bond.
It throbbed with every heartbeat, hot and fierce, an ache that felt alive.
"Damn it," she hissed, struggling over a root and hardly catching herself before she fell. She braced her hands on her knees, gasping, the night air sharp in her lungs.
This was worse than she imagined. Worse than the stories.
She pressed a shaking hand over her sternum. The pull toward Kael was consistent, relentlessly —a direction, a presence. Even now, she could feel him. His anger. His restriction. His attention was locked on her like a vulture refusing to look away.
Fear twirled tight in her stomach.
She forced herself to untangle and kept moving.
Kael stood exactly where she'd left him long after the woodland swallowed her scent.
The pack eyed him in stunned silence.
Never—never—had an Alpha's mate walked away.
"You let her go?" his beta, Rowan, asked carefully.
Kael's jaw flexed. "I said for now."
The words tasted bitter. His wolf paced inside him, furious, injured, urging a quest. Claim her. Drag her back. Make her submit. The instinct was antique and forceful, and it took every ounce of Kael's control not to give in to it.
"She rejected you," another voice muttered. Elder Mara strolled forward, her sharp eyes estimating. "That cannot stand."
Kael's gaze snapped to her. The air reduced immediately, authority rolling off him in strangling tides. Several wolves bent their heads without meaning to.
"She is not prey," he said, voice like steel. "And she will not be penalized."
Mara lifted a brow. "Your mate rejected fate itself. The pack will see that as weakness."
Kael took one step forward.
"You will see it as my decision," he roared. "Or you will step down."
Silence crashed down hard.
Mara held his gaze for a long moment before inclining her head. "As you command, Alpha."
But Kael saw the flicker of something dangerous in her eyes.
Trouble.
Aria reached the edge of the old cottage just before sunrise.
It drooped under the weight of years and disregard, hidden deep in the forest—far from the pack, far from rules and ranks. She fell against the door, hands trembling as she groped with the latch.
The moment she strolled inside, her legs gave out.
She slid down the wall, curling in on herself as pain tore through her chest without warning. It wasn't just longing now—it was terror, anger, chaos, all intertwined together.
His emotions.
The realization hit her hard.
She wasn't just feeling her own reaction. The bond was bleeding him into her—his frustration, his restriction, the echo of his wolf slamming against invisible bars.
"Oh no," she whispered. "No, no, no."
This was bad. Worse than bad.
She pulled herself to the narrow bed and sat on the edge, grabbing the thin bed as the feelings washed over her. Images flashed at the edges of her mind—silver eyes, a blood-red moon, claws falling into earth.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"I am not yours," she said aloud, voice shaking. "You don't get to live in my head."
The bond answered with a sharp pulse of heat.
Aria laughed weakly, tears spilling over. "Of course you do."
Kael woke from an extinct sleep with a snarl on his lips.
He sat upright in bed, breath ragged, sheets twisted around his fists. The room smelled faintly of pine and her—her—a scent that hadn't been there before and now refused to leave.
She was hurting.
The knowledge slammed into him, instant and unmistakable. Pain trickled through the bond, strong and fierce, and his wolf howled in response.
"She's in distress," he muttered, already turning his legs over the side of the bed.
Rowan appeared in the doorway like he'd been waiting. "You felt it too."
Kael nodded once. "I'm going after her."
Rowan hesitated. "Alpha—if you push too hard—"
"I won't," Kael cracked, then paused, forcing himself to breathe. "I won't force her. But someone else might."
That was the truth he couldn't ignore.
A rejected mate was vulnerable. A mate without pack protection was a target.
And some wolves would use her to hurt him.
Aria barely heard the floorboard creak behind her.
She sensed him instead.
The cabin seemed to shrink, the air thickening as power flooded the small space. Her heart leapt painfully into her throat as she looked up.
Kael filled the doorway.
His hair was tousled, his shirt rashly tugged on, eyes blazing silver in the low light. He looked less like a composed Alpha and more like something wild barely holding itself together.
"You shouldn't be here," she said, shuffling to her feet.
"And yet," he replied quietly, "here I am."
The bond swelled between them, hot and electric, and this time she couldn't stop the shiver that ran through her.
"You're hurting," he said.
"That's your fault."
His jaw narrowed. "Yes."
The entry threw her off balance.
He took a careful step inside, hands open at his sides. "Someone in my pack will come for you. Not to help."
Fear slashed through her. "Then call them off."
"I can't," he said softly. "Not without claiming you."
Her breath caught.
"Then leave," she said. "Before this ruins both of us."
Kael looked at her like the idea physically hurt.
"I don't know how to walk away from you," he said. "But I swear this—no one touches you. Not while I breathe."
The bond flared—warm this time. Protective. Dangerous.
Aria swallowed hard.
For the first time since the clearing, she wondered if fate wasn't her only enemy.
And whether the Alpha might not be either