The pack dispersed uneasily after Ronan's departure. Wolves muttered among themselves, their distrust of Aradia sharpening into suspicion. Some glanced at her with awe, others with naked hostility.
Kael barked orders, his voice carrying the weight of command, and the pack obeyed. Yet beneath their obedience lingered unrest.
Aradia slipped outside, needing air, needing distance from all those burning eyes. The snow had stopped, leaving the forest still and silver under the rising sun. Her breath clouded in the cold as she walked, her boots crunching in the frost.
What truth was Kael hiding? Why had Ronan's words struck him like a blade to the heart?
She wrapped her cloak tighter, but the cold inside her chest had nothing to do with the winter air.
"Leaving so soon?"
Her heart lurched. She spun—and there he was. Ronan. Leaning against the trunk of a pine tree, arms folded, his copper hair catching the sunlight like flame.
She stepped back, pulse racing. "Stay away from me."
He smirked. "If I wanted to harm you, little witch, you'd already be ash in the snow." His eyes gleamed, hungry and amused. "No, I only wish to talk."
"I have nothing to say to you."
"And yet your eyes ask me questions your Alpha will not answer." He pushed off the tree, stepping closer, slow and deliberate, his gaze never leaving hers. "Do you know what you are? What kind of witch bleeds storms and commands roots from the earth? Do you know why the hunters fear you more than they fear Kael?"
Her breath quickened. "I didn't ask for any of this."
"And yet it is yours," Ronan murmured, circling her like a wolf scenting prey. "Power older than kingdoms, fire older than the moon. You are the last of the bloodline, Aradia. The last of the Witches of the Veil."
Her knees weakened. The name meant nothing to her, yet it struck some hidden chord in her chest, like a bell tolling in the distance of her memory.
"What do you mean?" she whispered.
Ronan smiled, his amber eyes softening just slightly. "It means your Alpha is not protecting you out of kindness. He protects you because you are a weapon. A key. And keys… unlock doors best left shut."
"Lies," she snapped, though her voice shook.
"Perhaps." His hand lifted, brushing a strand of hair from her face with a touch too gentle, too deliberate. "Or perhaps I see you more clearly than he ever will."
Before she could shove him away, a low growl rumbled behind them.
Kael.
He emerged from the trees like a storm on legs, his green eyes blazing, his jaw clenched with barely contained rage.
"Touch her again," Kael snarled, "and I will tear you apart."
Ronan smirked, stepping back. "Careful, Alpha. Jealousy makes beasts of men—even those already cursed as wolves."
And then, with a mocking bow to Aradia, he vanished into the forest once more.
Kael was on her in an instant, gripping her shoulders, his chest heaving. "What did he tell you?"
Aradia's lips parted, her voice barely a whisper. "He said I was a witch of the Veil. That you're hiding something from me."
Kael's jaw tightened, his grip firm, his eyes burning with conflict. "Aradia… there are truths that will damn us both. Truths that will break the world if spoken."
Her eyes filled with anger, fear, and something else—longing. "Then tell me. Don't treat me like a child. I deserve to know."
For a long, charged moment, Kael said nothing. His green eyes searched hers, dark with desire, darker still with secrets.
Then, with a sound halfway between a growl and a sigh, he pulled her against him, his heat wrapping around her like fire.
"Not tonight," he murmured against her hair. "Tonight, you are safe. That is enough."
But in his silence, Aradia tasted only fear.