Aria POV
I didn't run from the Vale Lodge—I escaped it.
Lucian's command still rang in my skull, cold and sharp as his mother's smile. And the worst part? They both expected me to obey. To play along. To risk Lyra's future like it was some bargaining chip on a political board.
My hands were shaking on the wheel before I cleared the driveway.
Then it hit me.
A stab of heat, right at the place I kept hidden under my collar—the spot where his mark should've been. A wave of fury. Not mine.
His.
Lucian had felt me slipping away, and the weird, fragile bond tethered through Lyra lit up like a live wire. His thoughts weren't words—they were pressure, anger, disappointment, all of it firing like sparks against my ribs.
I bit down on a sob and whispered to nobody,
"He belongs to Lyra. This is for Lyra."
But the pain didn't let go.
By the time I pulled up to the Blackwood property, my pulse was a pounding blur. The place looked worse than I remembered—like heartbreak had sunk into the wood and rotted it from the inside out.
I gripped the petition so tightly the paper wrinkled, then knocked.
Selene Blackwood opened the door like she'd been waiting to sink her teeth into someone. Cheap perfume. Expensive malice.
"Well, look what crawled back," she purred. "The rejected omega."
Her voice alone made my spine threaten to fold, but I lifted my chin.
"I'm here for Damien. On pack authority."
I didn't blink when I said Luna Helena. Selene did.
Inside, the house smelled like beer and neglect. Damien sat slumped in his chair, looking every bit the man who once promised me a family and delivered a wasteland instead.
The moment he saw the paper, he smirked.
"Ceremony didn't go well?"
I ignored the jab and slid the waiver across the table.
He skimmed it—and lost it.
"She wants me to give up my rights? Now that Lyra's suddenly precious to the Alpha? You think I'll just hand her over for nothing? She's valuable now!"
"You rejected us," I said quietly.
"And I can unreject my own blood if it benefits me," he snapped. "That girl is my leverage. My payment. The one thing you didn't ruin."
His words felt like a punch. Then—
Little feet.
Noah, sticky-faced and wide-eyed, ran in and pointed at me like I was a shadow in his closet.
"That's the bad omega lady! Daddy says so!"
Selene laughed. Damien didn't even flinch.
And that… that was the moment something broke.
A violent wave of Alpha fury slammed into me, too strong to be imagined. My breath caught. My vision blurred. My knees buckled.
Lucian.
He felt this. All of it.
Damien saw my stagger and thought fear had finally snapped me. He lunged, face twisted, hand raised.
"Get out of my house! You don't belong here!"
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for impact.
For one terrible, humiliating heartbeat, I believed I had failed everyone.
*****
Lucisn's POV
Her fear hit me like someone set a grenade off in my chest.
Then came the rage—my rage—bleeding through the bond before I could leash it. I didn't think. Didn't breathe. Didn't bother announcing myself to anyone.
I shot Elias a coded message:
Perimeter 7. Red Flag.
Translation: Move now.
Then I drove like a man with nothing left to lose.
When the Blackwood house came into view, I didn't slow down. I hit the door full force, wood exploding inward in a rain of splinters.
Aria's scent of fear was everywhere.
Damien's raised hand froze mid-air. Aria was pressed against the wall, eyes shut, a single tear sliding down her cheek.
My wolf went feral.
"STOP."
The command wasn't shouted—it was unleashed. The room vibrated with it. Damien locked in place, shaking.
I crossed the room in two strides, planting myself in front of Aria so instinctively it felt like breathing. My dominance poured out like a storm breaking open.
"Look at me," I said.
Damien couldn't. Sweat rolled down his forehead.
"You allowed your child to insult a female under my protection," I said, voice low and deadly. "You thought you could profit off her daughter like she's livestock."
He whimpered something pathetic.
Selene looked like she wanted to melt into the carpet. Noah hid behind her leg.
Elias appeared in the doorway, calm, professional, carrying legal folders like he walked into scenes like this every Tuesday.
I grabbed the petition Damien had thrown and slammed my pen on the table.
"You will sign away every right to Lyra," I said. "And you will pack your things and leave the pack border within twenty-four hours."
Damien blinked, confused, terrified.
"I—I can't. My wolf—"
"If you refuse," I said, "I strip your wolf myself."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Shaking so hard he could barely hold the pen, Damien signed.
I didn't spare him another glance. My only focus was Aria.
I took her arm—not to control her, but because I needed to feel she was real, alive, safe—and pulled her out of that house.
"You're coming with me," I said, breath harsh. "And you are never facing men like that alone again. Not while this blood still pumps in my chest."
I got her into the truck and slammed the door before the weight of the moment could swallow me.
Lyra was legally protected now.
But Aria?
She'd just lost the last lie she'd been hiding behind.
And I knew—deep in my bones—that everything between us was about to explode.