The night air was thick with the scent of burning wood and rain-soaked pavement. Kane stood alone on the cliff's edge, staring out at the dark forest below. His jaw was clenched so tight it hurt.
She'd slipped through his fingers.
No—they had taken her from him.
Nova.
His mate.
His.
The word echoed like a curse in his mind. He could still smell her skin, feel the heat of her body trembling in his arms before Darian and his pack of overprotective brothers had come crashing through the door. Wolves in suits. So clean and refined—but beasts underneath.
He'd nearly shifted then and there, his wolf clawing beneath the surface. But Nova's terrified eyes had held him back.
Not fear of him. Fear of betrayal.
She didn't understand yet. She didn't know who she was. What she was.
What she meant to him.
Behind him, a rustle of movement.
His Beta, Axel, emerged from the shadows, still bloodstained from the scuffle. "We pushed too fast."
Kane didn't respond.
"You gave her a glimpse of the truth. She'll come to you eventually."
Kane turned sharply. "She wasn't supposed to be scared of me."
"She's barely awakened. Her blood is only starting to stir," Axel said. "She doesn't know what she is, what her bloodline carries."
"She should feel the pull. The bond." His voice broke with frustration. "She should've come with me."
"She felt it," Axel replied calmly. "But so did they. And they've been preparing longer than we thought."
Kane's fists clenched.
"I smelled something else tonight," Axel continued, more cautious now. "When you touched her… something ancient. Something buried. She's not just a shifter, Kane."
Kane's eyes darkened. "Say it."
"I think her bloodline ties back to the first wolves. The Moonborn."
The wind howled around them.
The Moonborn were a myth. A legend. Descendants of the original wolf gods, whose blood carried not just power but prophecy.
If Nova was one of them...
Then she wasn't just his mate.
She was everything.
Kane's voice dropped to a whisper. "Then I have to get to her before they do. Before they tell her too much."
Axel hesitated. "You want to go after her again?"
Kane's eyes burned gold in the moonlight.
ya
He turned away from the cliff.
"And if her brothers try to stop it again?"
Kane's smile was cold.
"Then I'll tear their world apart."