Aria's POV
"Alpha Queen?" I whispered, my voice shaking. "That's impossible. I'm nobody."
But before Kai could explain, a terrible howl echoed through the forest. It wasn't one of our pack wolves. It was something wild and angry and wrong.
Damon's whole body went stiff. His eyes blazed gold as he stepped in front of me.
"Rogues," he growled. "They're here."
"How many?" Kai asked, pulling out a silver knife.
"Too many." Damon's voice was deadly calm. "They must have followed the Sterling Pack onto our land."
Another howl answered the first one. Then another. Soon the forest was full of horrible sounds - snarls and growls and the sound of claws scraping against trees.
I had never seen a rogue wolf before, but I knew the stories. They were wolves who had been kicked out of their packs for doing terrible things. They lived in the wild, half-crazy and always hungry. They attacked anything that moved.
"Aria, listen to me," Damon said without turning around. "When I tell you to run, you run. Don't look back. Don't stop. Get to the pack house and find Elder Marcus."
"I'm not leaving you," I said, surprising myself with how fierce I sounded.
"You'll do what I tell you to do," Damon snapped. "I'm your Alpha."
"You're not my anything!" I shot back. "You walked away from me, remember?"
Kai made a choking sound that might have been a laugh. "She's got you there, cousin."
But there was no time to argue. The first rogue burst through the trees, and it was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen.
It looked like a wolf, but wrong. Its fur was matted and dirty. Its eyes were crazy and red. Foam dripped from its mouth, and its teeth were stained with blood. It was bigger than any normal wolf, twisted by years of living wild and eating things it shouldn't eat.
It saw me and smiled with too many teeth.
"Pretty little omega," it said in a voice like broken glass. "You smell so sweet. So royal. We're going to have so much fun."
Damon exploded into motion.
He shifted into his wolf form so fast it looked like magic. One second he was standing there in human shape, the next he was a massive black wolf throwing himself at the rogue.
They crashed together with a sound like thunder. The rogue was big, but Damon was bigger. Stronger. And completely furious.
But more rogues were coming. I could hear them crashing through the trees from all directions.
"Kai!" I screamed as two more rogues appeared behind him.
He spun around, his knife flashing in the moonlight, but there were too many. One of them knocked the weapon from his hand with a swipe of its claws.
Without thinking, I grabbed a heavy branch from the ground and swung it as hard as I could at the rogue's head. It connected with a satisfying crack, and the creature stumbled back, shaking its head in confusion.
"Nice hit!" Kai yelled, pulling out another knife.
But I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Something was happening to me. Something strange and powerful and scary.
My wolf was waking up again, but this time she wasn't gentle. She was angry. Furious that these dirty creatures dared to threaten our mate.
Our mate. The thought should have shocked me, but it felt right. Natural.
Power flowed through my body like liquid fire. My scent exploded outward, stronger than before. So strong that all the rogues stopped fighting and turned to stare at me.
"Impossible," one of them whispered. "She's just a pup."
"She's moon-blessed," another one said, and there was fear in its voice. "Look at her eyes."
I didn't know what they meant until I caught my reflection in the lake water. My eyes were glowing silver. Bright as stars.
The power inside me kept growing. I felt like I might explode if I didn't do something with it. But I didn't know what to do. No one had ever taught me how to use whatever this was.
That's when the biggest rogue appeared.
It was enormous, almost as big as Damon's wolf form. Its fur was silver and black, and its eyes held intelligence that the others lacked. This wasn't just any rogue. This was their leader.
"Hello, little queen," it said, and its voice was smooth and cold. "I am Marcus the Exile. I've been looking for you for a very long time."
"Stay away from her!" Damon snarled, placing himself between me and the rogue leader.
Marcus laughed. "The mighty Alpha Blackwood, protecting his precious omega. How sweet. But you can't protect her from what she is. From what she's meant to become."
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"You really don't know, do you?" Marcus tilted his head like a curious dog. "You don't know why your scent drives every wolf crazy. Why your eyes glow with moon-light. Why you have power that could reshape our entire world."
"I don't have any power," I said, but even as I said it, I could feel energy crackling under my skin.
"Oh, but you do." Marcus took a step closer, and Damon growled a warning. "You're the first moon-blessed omega born in over a century. Do you know what that means?"
I shook my head.
"It means you can create new packs. Break old bonds. Make any wolf submit to your will with just a thought." His red eyes gleamed with hunger. "It means you're the most powerful creature in our world."
"You're lying," Damon said, but he sounded uncertain.
"Am I?" Marcus looked straight at me. "Tell me, little queen. When you look at your precious Alpha, what do you see?"
Without meaning to, I looked at Damon. And suddenly I could see things I had never noticed before. Golden threads of energy connecting him to every member of his pack. The weight of all their loyalty and trust pressing down on his shoulders. The fear and loneliness he hid behind his cold mask.
And something else. Something that made my heart stop.
A dark shadow wrapped around his heart like chains. Old pain. Deep sadness. And underneath it all, a desperate hunger for something he thought he could never have.
Love. He wanted love so badly it was killing him inside.
"I can see it in your face," Marcus said with satisfaction. "You're starting to understand, aren't you? You can see the bonds that tie wolves together. You can see their deepest secrets. Their greatest fears."
"Stop," I whispered, covering my eyes. "Make it stop."
"I can teach you to control it," Marcus offered. "Come with me, and I'll show you how to use your gifts. How to become the queen you were born to be."
"Never," Damon said, and his wolf form began to glow with Alpha power.
"Then you'll both die," Marcus said simply.
He howled, and suddenly there were rogues everywhere. Dozens of them, pouring out of the forest like a dark wave.
Damon and Kai fought like heroes from the old stories. They moved like dancers, deadly and graceful and perfectly in sync. But there were too many enemies.
A rogue got past Damon and lunged straight for me. I closed my eyes and waited to die.
But death didn't come.
Instead, Damon's hand closed around mine, and the world exploded into light.
The moment our skin touched, power erupted from both of us. Not just my moon-blessed energy, but his Alpha strength too, mixing together into something incredible. Something unstoppable.
The light that poured out of us was so bright it turned night into day. Every rogue in the clearing screamed and covered their eyes. Some of them actually caught fire and ran away howling.
When the light faded, Marcus and his rogues were gone. Vanished like smoke.
I was still holding Damon's hand, and I could feel his heartbeat through our joined palms. It was beating as fast as mine.
"Are you hurt?" he asked softly.
"No," I whispered. "Are you?"
He shook his head, but he didn't let go of my hand. His skin was warm against mine, and where we touched felt like it was burning in the most wonderful way.
"That power," Kai said, staring at us with wide eyes. "I've never seen anything like it."
"It was both of us," Damon said quietly. "When we touched... something happened."
I looked up at him, and his golden eyes were full of wonder and something that looked like hope.
"You're mine now," he said, and his voice was rough with emotion. "I don't care what anyone says. I don't care about pack politics or duty or anything else. You're mine, and I'm never letting you go."
My heart soared like a bird taking flight. After years of being alone, someone finally wanted to keep me.
But just as I was about to tell him yes, that I wanted to be his too, a gunshot echoed through the trees.
Damon's eyes went wide with shock and pain. He looked down at his chest, where red was spreading across his shirt.
"No!" I screamed as he fell to his knees.
From the shadows stepped a man I didn't recognize. He was holding a smoking gun and wearing the uniform of the Sterling Pack.
"Sorry, Alpha," he said with a cold smile. "But the girl comes with us now."