[POV: Aria]
I didn’t think it would feel like this.
After Hayden’s announcement—after his kiss in front of the whole pack, and the way his voice rang out when he claimed me not just as his Luna, but as his mate—something had shifted.
Not just in me.
In everything.
The way people looked at me changed. Some smiled brighter, spoke softer, even bowed. Others stared a second too long, like they were trying to reconcile the girl I’d once been with the woman I was now. I could feel the weight of their expectations settling on my shoulders like a new pelt. One I wasn’t sure I’d grown into yet.
But I knew one thing: I didn’t want favors.
“I’m still a Junior Warrior,” I told Piper, the moment she offered to pull me from field training to help me prepare for the ceremony. “I still show up. I still bleed. This title doesn’t make me fragile.”
She looked at me for a long moment, then nodded. “Fine. But if I catch you favoring a twisted ankle or dodging drills to keep your Luna dress clean, I’m putting you in swamp detail.”
I grinned. “Fair.”
Of course, not everyone handled it so...gracefully.
Noelle, Emmett, and Russell cornered me by the training circle a few days after the announcement. Noelle had her arms crossed and that dangerous fire in her eyes.
“You’re my best friend, Aria,” she hissed under her breath. “And you didn’t think to mention you were, oh, I don’t know—mated to our Alpha?”
Emmett raised an eyebrow. “Seriously. That’s not the kind of thing you just forget to bring up over sparring.”
“I didn’t forget,” I muttered, cheeks burning. “I just… I didn’t know how. Everything happened so fast.”
Their stares didn’t budge.
“I thought if I told you, it would change how you saw me. I didn’t want that.”
Noelle’s eyes softened. “You idiot.”
And then she pulled me into a hug that knocked the breath from my lungs.
“I’m still mad at you,” she said into my shoulder, “but I’m also proud of you. You deserve this.”
Emmett ruffled my hair while Russell muttered, “Bet Hayden’s regretting it already.”
We all laughed. Well… almost all of us.
Talia didn’t speak to me.
Not in training. Not in the hallways. Not during pack meals or prep for the ceremony. But I felt her. Her anger. Her hatred.
Like hot breath on the back of my neck.
She thought the Luna title was hers by merit. That I had stolen it, bypassed the years she’d poured into earning it. And maybe, in some ways, she was right.
But what none of them knew—what only Hayden had seen—was how hard I had fought just to survive. Not rise. Not shine. Just breathe.
Still, she didn’t try to sabotage the ceremony.
She helped the others prepare, her face a blank mask, her tone clipped and professional. But her silence cut more deeply than any insult.
The day of the consummation ceremony arrived with silver clouds and a glowing moon, already bright before the sun had fully set.
I stood in the sacred clearing behind the pack house, draped in a gown of pale blue and silver, embroidered with symbols of the Moon Goddess and the Crimson Fang crest. My hair had been braided with thin silver cords, and at my neck hung the charm Hayden had once gifted me—his mother’s enchanted fang.
My hands were shaking.
Hayden stood beside me in full ceremonial armor, but when he reached for my hand, his fingers were warm and steady.
“You’re nervous,” he said softly, without judgment.
I nodded.
“You’re going to be brilliant,” he added, brushing his thumb over the back of my hand. “You already are.”
I looked up at him, searching for doubt. Found none.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“Then we’ll be scared together.”
When Elder Axel stepped forward, the clearing fell silent.
The moon was full above us, casting soft silver light over the circle of pack members gathered. Candles flickered along the ritual stones. The scent of herbs and smoke drifted through the air.
Axel’s voice rang out, deep and steady. “Tonight, we gather under the gaze of the Moon Goddess to bless the union of Alpha Hayden and his fated mate, Aria of Crimson Fang. Through blood, spirit, and bond, they unite as Alpha and Luna.”
He began the incantation in the Old Tongue, hands raised to the sky, the pack echoing the words in reverent harmony.
I closed my eyes. The energy in the clearing shifted.
I felt it at first like a whisper—cool air brushing against my skin, the sudden stillness of the night. But then it grew.
Power surged through me like lightning trapped in my veins. My spine arched. My breath caught. The ground pulsed beneath my feet, and the moon above us—brightened.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Elder Axel’s voice faltered.
My eyes flew open—and met his stunned, almost frightened gaze.
His lips parted. “Moon above…”
The moonlight didn’t just shine on me—it poured into me. My skin glowed with it, soft and luminous. My wolf, Yoka, stirred in my chest, alert and thrumming with ancient energy I’d never felt before.
Hayden’s hand tightened around mine, steady and sure—but when I looked up at him, even he looked shaken.
I didn’t know what this meant. But from the look on Elder Axel’s face… Neither did he.