POV: Damon
My parents are going to kill Aria.
The words echo in my head as I watch Helena and Marcus walk through the trees with their flashlights, searching for their daughter's body. These people—Aria's own parents—hired rogues to murder her.
And I'm lying here poisoned and useless while Aria crouches over me, her hands glowing with impossible silver light.
I try to move, to shift, to do anything to protect her. But the rogue poison has paralyzed me. All I can do is watch through half-closed eyes as the flashlights get closer.
Aria's hands press harder against my poisoned wounds. The silver light brightens, and I feel the poison burning away where she touches me. The pain is incredible, but the black spreading across my chest starts to recede.
"Please work," Aria whispers desperately. "Please, please work."
Her parents are maybe twenty feet away now.
"I don't see any bodies," Marcus says. He sounds annoyed, not worried. "The rogues should have left remains."
"Maybe they dragged her off to eat," Helena suggests casually, like she's talking about the weather. "Either way, she's gone. That's all that matters."
Rage burns through me, hot enough to cut through the poison fog. These monsters created Aria. Raised her. And they're celebrating her death.
The silver light from Aria's hands pulses brighter. More poison burns away. I can feel my strength starting to return, but not fast enough.
"Wait." Marcus stops walking. His flashlight beam sweeps closer to where we're hidden behind a fallen tree. "I smell blood. Fresh blood."
"The rogues?" Helena moves closer too.
"No. This is pack blood. Steele blood."
They know I'm here.
Aria's eyes meet mine, wide with terror. Her hands are still glowing, still healing me, but she's shaking all over.
I force my lips to move, though my voice comes out as barely a whisper. "Run."
She shakes her head. Stubborn girl. My impossible, stubborn mate who won't leave me even after everything I've done to her.
The flashlight beam catches Aria's hair. Helena gasps.
"She's alive!" Helena's voice fills with panic, not relief. "Marcus, she's alive and she's with Damon!"
Both of them rush forward. I try to push myself up, but my arms won't hold my weight. The poison is still too strong.
Marcus reaches us first. His face twists with rage when he sees Aria's glowing hands on my chest. "What are you doing? What is that light?"
"Stay back!" Aria's voice is fierce. The silver glow intensifies, and suddenly I can breathe easier. Feel my fingers and toes again.
"That's not possible," Helena whispers. She's staring at Aria like she's seeing a ghost. "You're not supposed to be able to—Marcus, she's awakened. We're too late."
"No." Marcus pulls a knife from his belt. An actual knife, like he's planning to finish what the rogues started. "We end this now before anyone else sees."
He lunges at Aria.
My wolf explodes to life. Poison or no poison, paralyzed or not, I will not let him touch my mate.
I shift mid-rise, my grey wolf form tearing through the last of the poison's hold. I'm between Marcus and Aria in half a heartbeat, my jaws snapping inches from his throat.
He stumbles backward, the knife falling from his hand.
"Damon, don't!" Helena's voice is shrill. "You don't understand what she is! What she'll become! She's dangerous!"
"The only dangerous ones here are you." My words come out as a growl, barely understandable in wolf form. "You tried to have your own daughter killed."
"To protect the pack!" Marcus shouts. "To protect everyone! She's a True Luna, you idiot boy! Do you know what that means?"
The words hit me like a punch. True Luna. I've heard the term in old stories. Ancient bloodlines with power that could rival or even surpass an Alpha's. Bloodlines that were supposedly extinct.
I look back at Aria. She's standing now, her whole body outlined in silver light. She looks terrified and powerful all at once.
"I don't care what she is," I say, and I mean it. "You're not touching her."
"Your father will hear about this," Helena threatens. "You're protecting the girl who'll destroy everything he's built. When Rowan finds out what she is—"
"He already knows." The new voice makes everyone freeze.
Alpha Rowan steps out of the shadows. My father, the most powerful wolf in Crimson Ridge Pack, has been watching this whole time.
His face is calm. Too calm.
"Hello, Aria," he says pleasantly. "I've been waiting eighteen years for your power to emerge. Though I'd hoped it wouldn't. Hoped that maybe Catherine's bloodline had diluted enough that you'd be normal."
Catherine. My mother's name. Why is he bringing up my mother?
"What are you talking about?" I demand.
Father's cold eyes meet mine. "Your mother was a True Luna. The last one we knew of. I killed her for it before she could become powerful enough to challenge me." He says it casually, like he's commenting on the weather. "And now here's her niece, displaying the same abilities. How inconvenient."
The world stops.
My mother was murdered. By my father. Because she was too powerful.
And Aria is—
"Catherine's niece?" Aria's voice shakes. "That's impossible. My parents said I was their daughter."
"Your parents are liars who sold you to me in exchange for rank and protection," Father says. "Helena is Catherine's sister. When Catherine became pregnant with you before she mated me, we made a deal. Marcus would raise you as his own. And when your True Luna power emerged, Marcus would make sure you didn't survive long enough to use it."
Every word is a bomb exploding in my head.
Aria is my cousin. My dead mother's daughter. The family I thought I lost is standing right in front of me, and I've spent years destroying her.
"You're insane," Aria whispers. "All of you are insane."
"No, dear girl. We're practical." Father's eyes flash red. "True Lunas are too dangerous to live. They can override Alpha commands. Turn packs against their leaders. Your mother tried to stop my rule, tried to make me soft. I couldn't allow it."
He shifts to his massive Alpha wolf form. Bigger than me. Stronger. The most powerful wolf I've ever seen.
"I gave you a chance to die quietly," Father says. "The rogues should have made it quick. But since you're still here, I'll finish this myself."
He moves so fast I barely see it. His jaws go straight for Aria's throat.
I jump between them, taking the bite meant for her. Father's teeth sink deep into my shoulder, and pain explodes through me. Not just physical pain—the pain of betrayal. My father just tried to kill my mate and admitted to murdering my mother.
Everything I believed about him was a lie.
"Run!" I manage to shout at Aria. "Get to the pack house! Tell everyone what he did!"
But Father's jaw clamps down harder. I feel bones crack. My vision goes dark at the edges.
Through the pain, I feel Aria's hands on me. That silver light again, burning bright enough to light up the whole forest.
"Let. Him. Go." Aria's voice doesn't sound like her anymore. It sounds ancient. Powerful. Absolutely furious.
Power explodes from her in a wave that knocks everyone back—me, Father, Marcus, Helena. Trees bend. The ground shakes.
When I can see again, Aria is standing in the center of a circle of silver light. Her eyes glow pure gold. Her dark hair floats around her like she's underwater.
She looks like a goddess.
Father stares at her with something I've never seen on his face before: fear.
"Impossible," he breathes. "You haven't even completed your mate bond. You shouldn't be this strong yet."
"Stay away from him," Aria says in that ancient voice. "Stay away from Damon or I will end you."
"You can't kill an Alpha," Father snarls. "It's against pack law. Against the Moon Goddess herself."
Aria's smile is terrifying. "Then it's a good thing I'm not part of your pack anymore. I, Aria Winters, reject Crimson Ridge Pack and all its laws."
The silver light pulses once, twice.
And then Aria collapses.
The light dies. She hits the ground hard and doesn't move.
"No!" I'm moving before I think, catching her before her head hits a rock. She's unconscious, her breathing shallow.
Father laughs. "Foolish girl. That much power use without a completed mate bond? It's killing her. She'll be dead by morning."
He's right. I can feel it through our bond—Aria's life force is burning out like a candle. She used too much power too fast.
"There is one way to save her," Father says casually. "Complete the mate bond. Your strength will stabilize her power. Of course, that means accepting her as your Luna. Accepting your true mate over Vivian. Defying everything I've planned for you."
He's giving me a choice. Aria's life or my father's approval.
"If you choose the girl," Father continues, "I'll declare you both traitors. Hunt you across every territory. You'll never be Alpha. Never have a home. You'll spend your life running."
I look down at Aria. My mate. My cousin. The girl I tortured for years because my father made me think she was weak.
She's dying because she saved my life.
The choice isn't hard at all.
I scoop Aria into my arms and shift, cradling her carefully against my chest in wolf form. Father moves to block my path, but I bare my teeth.
"Try to stop me," I growl. "See what happens."
For a long moment, we stare at each other. Alpha against future Alpha. Father against son.
Then Father steps aside. "Run, then. Run far. Because when I catch you—and I will catch you—I'll make you watch while I tear her apart."
I run.
Through the forest, across pack lands, heading for the border. Aria's heartbeat gets weaker with every step. The mate bond whispers that she's slipping away.
I have maybe an hour. Maybe less.
And I have no idea where to go or how to save her.