Aria
The forest was silent at midnight. Too silent.
Each step I took away from the Pack House made the world feel wider, colder… freer. My fingers trembled around the strap of my satchel. My boots crunched the frost-kissed grass. Every breath fogged in the chilled air, and with it came the weight of everything I was leaving behind.
The northern border wasn’t far. Just past the riverbend, beyond the ridge where the Blue Stone sigil faded from the trees. The place where the bond might loosen its grip—if I made it far enough. If I was brave enough.
Elias waited there.
I saw him before he saw me—two horses saddled behind him, breath steaming in the dark. He stood tall in his cloak, a single lantern flickering beside him, his silver eyes full of knowing.
“You came,” he said softly, stepping toward me.
I nodded, though my throat felt too tight to speak.
He gestured to the mare behind him. “She’s steady. Fast. She’ll take you anywhere but back.”
My heart thundered.
“Is this real?” I asked quietly.
“Yes.” Elias’s voice didn’t waver. “You can start over. Far from here. No more Ryle. No more stares. No more cruel silences. Just you, me, and peace. Let the bond fade. Let the pain go.”
I stared at the horse. Then at the trees. Then at the road behind me.
I didn’t move. My soul was at war. Because part of me, the broken, bruised, silenced part, screamed to run.
But another part—the foolish, aching part—still burned with something unspoken.
A scent shifted the wind. And I knew. I turned.
Matthew.
He stepped out from the shadows slowly. Not in a shift. Not in rage. No bared teeth, no shouting, no Alpha voice.
Just him. His shirt was open at the throat, boots unlaced. His eyes—those golden, tortured eyes—looked like the storm had already passed through him.
And left him wrecked.
“You would’ve left,” he said, his voice barely louder than the wind, “without even saying goodbye?”
I swallowed hard. “You didn’t say goodbye when you humiliated me in front of your pack.”
His jaw clenched.
“You didn’t say goodbye when you let Selene sit beside you like she belonged there. You didn’t say goodbye when Ryle stripped me of the Luna title and you said nothing.”
He didn’t argue. He just looked at me—really looked.
“I watched you pack,” he said finally. “I didn’t stop you.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked, voice cracking.
“Because I didn’t think you’d actually go,” he whispered. “Not really. Not without me.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. “I can’t keep doing this, Matthew.”
He stepped forward. I stepped back.
“You think you can leave,” he murmured, “and this bond will just… disappear?”
“I hope it will,” I said, trying to breathe, to stay upright, to not cry.
He reached for my hand. And when his skin touched mine—
The bond flared. Like a live wire snapping beneath our skin. A surge of heat and pain tore through me so fast my knees buckled.
Matthew gasped too, like the energy had punched through both of us. His grip tightened—not cruelly, but desperately.
“You think you can run?” he said, eyes blazing. “Then run.”
He let go. But the pain didn’t.
“It won’t matter how far you go, Aria,” he rasped. “You’ll feel me. Burning in your veins until the day you die.”
The air turned thick, the energy pulling, twisting, consuming. My breath hitched. Too much. Too much pull. Too many broken promises. Too much pain. My mark glowed—blazing silver and blue, brighter than a firelight.
Elias shouted something—I didn’t hear it. Matthew stepped forward—his voice calling my name. But the last thing I saw was the forest spinning. The last thing I felt—
Was the bond snapping loose or pulling tighter. And then I fell. Into the dark.