The old cabin creaked like broken bones as Aria pushed open the door.
Ten years. Ten years since she'd been thrown out like garbage, and this rotting shack was still the only place she could call home. "Happy birthday to me," she whispered to the empty room. Eighteen today.
The magic number every werewolf waited for.
The day when everything was meant to change, when the Moon Goddess would bless you with your mate bond.
Aria laughed, but it sounded more like a sob.
What kind of blessing could she expect? She was nobody. Less than nobody. She was the girl who killed her sister. The memory hit her like a punch to the gut.
Lyra's laugh ringing through the forbidden forest. Her small hand slipping from Aria's grip. The splash of water. The silence that followed.
Stop it. Aria shook her head hard. She couldn't think about that. Not today. Not when she was already hanging by a thread. Her stomach growled loud enough to wake the dead.
When was the last time she'd eaten? Yesterday? The day before? Time blurred together when you spent your days hunting scraps and dodging pack guards.
She grabbed her hunting knife and headed outside.
The forest was quiet, too quiet. Even the birds seemed to hold their breath around her.
As if they knew what she'd done in these woods all those years ago. The rabbit appeared near the stream, its nose twitching as it looked for food. Aria crept forward, her bare feet silent on the forest floor.
She raised the knife, aimed, and Fire burst in her chest.
The knife clattered to the ground as Aria gasped, holding her shirt. It felt like someone had lit a match inside her ribs. The burning spread outward, running through her veins like liquid lightning.
No. No, no, no.
This couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not now. The mate bond. She tried to breathe, but the fire kept getting stronger. It pulled at something deep inside her, pulling her toward... what? Where?
The feeling was so powerful it brought tears to her eyes. "Get it together," she hissed through tight teeth.
"You're imagining things." But the pulling feeling only grew stronger. It felt like an unseen rope tied around her heart, yanking her toward the north. Toward the regions of the great packs.
Toward people who would take one look at her dirty clothes and tangled hair and know exactly what she was.
A rogue. An outsider. A sister-killer.
Aria stumbled back to her cabin, the fire in her chest making it hard to think straight. She needed to run. Pack up what little she had and escape deeper into the wilderness before anyone came looking for her.
Because they would come.
When a mate bond triggered, both wolves felt it. Somewhere out there, some poor wolf was probably wondering why the Moon Goddess had cursed him with a relationship to her.
She threw her few things into an old backpack.
A change of clothes. Her mother's silver necklace. The game knife. That was it. That was her entire life, fitting into a bag smaller than most people's lunch boxes.
The fire pulsed again, stronger this time. Aria doubled over, gasping. It wasn't just burning anymore it was calling. Demanding. Like a voice she couldn't quite hear, asking her to come home.
Home.
The word was a joke. She hadn't had a home since she was eight years old.
A howl echoed through the trees, deep and commanding. Then another. And another. They were coming from the north, from the way the bond was pulling her.
Aria's blood turned to ice water.
They were pack dogs. And they were hunting. She ran. Her feet beat against the forest floor as branches whipped at her face.
The backpack bounced against her spine with every step. Behind her, the howls grew louder, closer.
They'd picked up her smell.
The bond flared again, so powerful it nearly brought her to her knees. But this time, something else came with it.
A power.
Strong and wild and absolutely angry. He was angry. Her mate, whoever he was, had felt the link snap into place. And he was not happy about it.
Aria could almost feel his rage burning through their link like acid. Her chest stiffened, and for a moment she couldn't tell if the pain was from running or from his rejection hitting her before they'd even met.
The howls were getting closer.
She could hear paws pounding through the underbrush now. How many of them were there? Five? Ten? More? A massive gray wolf burst through the woods ahead of her, blocking her path.
Then another appeared to her left. Another to her right.
They were surrounding her, gathering her like prey. Aria skidded to a stop, her heart hammering so hard she thought it might burst. The wolves were huge, bigger than any she'd ever seen.
Their eyes glowed in the dim forest light, and their lips pulled back to show teeth like white blades. These weren't ordinary pack dogs. These were guards.
The gray wolf in front of her shifted, bones cracking and reshaping until a man stood where the beast had been. He was tall and broad, with dark hair and scars covering his arms.
His eyes were the color of winter storms, and they looked at her like she was something dirty he'd stepped in.
"Aria Thorn," he said, his voice rough as grit.
"By order of Alpha Kael Draven, you will come with us."
The name hit her like a physical blow. Kael Draven.
The Alpha of the best pack in the territories.
The wolf that other Alphas feared.
The man whose reputation for brutality was whispered about around campfires.
And apparently, her mate. The bond pulsed again, confirming what she already knew with terrible certainty.
The Moon Goddess had tied her to the most powerful, most dangerous wolf living.
The enforcer stepped closer, and Aria caught his smell. It was wrong somehow, stained with something dark and bitter. Like flowers left too long in the sun.
"I said you're coming with us," he repeated when she didn't move.
Aria looked at the circle of dogs surrounding her.
At the enforcer's cold eyes. At the path that went back to the life that had thrown her away.
She thought about running again. About shifting and going into the deepest parts of the forest where even the great packs wouldn't follow. But the bond wouldn't let her. It burned and pulled and demanded she go to him.
To Kael. To the mate who was already radiating fury through their link.
"Fine," she whispered.
The enforcer smiled, but there was no love in it. "Good choice."
As they forced her to shift and run with them toward whatever fate awaited her, Aria couldn't shake the feeling that she was rushing toward something much worse than exile.
She was running toward her death. And somewhere ahead of her, through the mate link that now connected them, she could feel Kael Draven waiting.