ARIA'S POV
I run until my legs give out.
My weak shift falls apart halfway through the forest, leaving me stumbling on human legs that can't carry the weight of what I just saw. I crash into a tree, bark scraping my palms bloody, and finally let myself scream.
The sound rips out of me like something dying. Maybe something is.
Six years. Six years of loving a man who was sleeping with someone else. Six years of raising a son who thinks I'm temporary help. Six years of believing that if I just tried harder, was better, more patient, more understanding—
I was such a fool.
My wolf is howling in my head, louder than she's been in years. She's not sad. She's furious. And underneath the fury, there's something else. Something that feels like... power?
No. That's impossible. I'm a defective Omega. I've always been weak.
But right now, I don't feel weak. I feel like I could burn the whole world down.
"Aria!"
Rowan's voice cuts through the trees. He's coming after me, probably to explain. To make excuses. To tell me I'm overreacting like always.
I force myself to stand even though my legs shake. I won't let him see me broken on the ground. I won't give him that satisfaction.
He crashes into the clearing, and I barely recognize him. His eyes are wild, his hair a mess, and he's clutching his chest like something hurts.
Good.
"Aria, please—" He reaches for me.
"Don't touch me!" I back away, and he actually flinches. "Don't you ever touch me again."
"I can explain—"
"Explain what?" My voice sounds strange. Stronger than it should. "Explain how you've been sleeping with Celeste for Moon knows how long? Explain how you told our son I'm just a babysitter? Explain how you've been planning to throw me away like garbage?"
"It's not like that—"
"Then what is it like, Rowan?" I step forward, and he steps back. When did that happen? When did I become the scary one? "Tell me. I'm listening."
He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Because there's no good explanation. No excuse that makes this okay.
"That's what I thought." I turn away from him, and the movement makes my wolf surge. She wants out. She wants to hurt him the way he hurt us.
But I push her down. I won't give him the satisfaction of seeing me lose control.
"The bond," Rowan gasps behind me. "Something's wrong with the bond. I can feel it now—really feel it—and it's killing me. Aria, I think Celeste did something. Blood magic. She's been using blood magic to—"
I spin around so fast he stumbles backward. "Don't you dare blame this on magic."
"But it's true! The bond was never cold because I didn't care. It was cold because she made it that way. She suppressed it so I couldn't feel—"
"Feel what?" I laugh, and it sounds broken. "Feel love? Feel loyalty? Feel basic human decency? Magic didn't make you cheat, Rowan. Magic didn't make you tell our son I'm temporary. Magic didn't make you forget six anniversaries in a row. That was all you."
"You don't understand—"
"I understand perfectly." My hands are shaking, but not from fear. From rage. "You wanted Celeste. You've always wanted her. The bond was just an inconvenience, and magic or not, you found a way around it. Don't pretend you're a victim here."
"I'm not pretending!" He's shouting now, desperate. "Yes, I made mistakes. Yes, I hurt you. But I never felt the bond properly until tonight. If I had—"
"If you had, what? You would have loved me?" The words taste like poison. "I didn't need a bond to love you, Rowan. I chose you every single day for six years. I chose you when you forgot my birthday. I chose you when you didn't visit me in the hospital after I nearly died having Finn. I chose you through every cold shoulder and every disappointed look. I didn't need magic to make that choice."
His face crumbles. "Aria—"
"But you needed magic to avoid choosing me back." I feel something crack open in my chest. Not my heart—that broke hours ago. Something deeper. "That says everything, doesn't it?"
The power surging through me is getting stronger. My wolf is pushing harder against my skin, demanding to be let out. But this isn't my normal weak shift trying to emerge. This is something bigger. Older. Terrifying.
"I reject this bond," I hear myself say.
The words feel right. Final.
Rowan's eyes go wide with horror. "No. Aria, no, you can't—"
"I reject you as my mate, Rowan Ashford." Power floods my voice, making it echo through the trees. "I reject this bond. I reject this pack. I reject everything that made me believe I was less than I am."
Energy explodes out of me like a bomb going off.
Rowan screams, collapsing to his knees and clutching his chest. The bond between us—that invisible thread I've felt for six years—snaps like a rubber band pulled too tight. The backlash hits me too, but instead of pain, I feel... free.
For the first time in six years, I feel free.
"What are you?" Rowan gasps, staring at me like he's seeing a stranger. "What are you really?"
I don't know how to answer that. I don't know what's happening to me. My body feels like it's on fire, but it doesn't hurt. It feels like something that's been locked away for years is finally breaking free.
My wolf surges forward, and this time I don't fight her.
The shift that comes isn't the weak, partial transformation I've struggled with my whole life. This is complete. Total. My bones reshape with cracks that should be agonizing but feel like relief. My skin erupts with fur that glows silver in the moonlight.
When the shift finishes, I'm not looking down at Rowan anymore.
I'm looking down at him.
I'm massive. Easily twice the size of his Alpha form. My paws leave deep prints in the forest floor. My reflection in a nearby puddle shows a wolf with glowing amber eyes and silver fur that seems to shimmer with its own light.
This isn't an Omega wolf. This isn't even an Alpha wolf.
This is something else entirely.
Rowan stares up at me in complete shock. "Impossible. You're—you can't be—"
But I don't stay to hear what I can't be. My new wolf form is strong. Fast. I run deeper into the forest, leaving him behind, leaving the pack behind, leaving everything behind.
I run until the Ashford Pack territory is nothing but a memory.
I run until the bond's ghost stops pulling at my chest.
I run until I cross into neutral lands and my legs finally give out.
I collapse in a clearing, my massive wolf form shrinking back to human. I'm naked, bleeding from a dozen scratches I didn't notice, and completely lost. I have no clothes. No food. No plan.
No idea what I am or what just happened.
But I'm free.
For the first time in my life, I'm free.
I curl up under a tree and close my eyes, letting exhaustion drag me under. Tomorrow I'll figure out what to do. Tomorrow I'll process everything. Tomorrow I'll decide who Aria Winters really is now that she's not Rowan Ashford's disappointing Omega mate.
But tonight, I just need to survive.
I'm almost asleep when I hear footsteps.
Heavy. Deliberate. Coming closer.
My eyes snap open to find a man standing at the edge of the clearing. He's tall, scarred, with silver-gray eyes that seem to glow in the darkness. He's clearly a shifter—I can smell the power rolling off him in waves.
An Alpha. A strong one.
"Well," he says, his voice rough but not unkind. "What do we have here?"
I try to stand, try to run, but my body won't cooperate. I'm too exhausted. Too broken.
The stranger kneels down, and I smell something unexpected on him: not threat, but curiosity. Concern, even.
"Easy," he murmurs. "I'm not going to hurt you. But you're in Rogue Territory now, little wolf, and you're radiating power like a beacon. Half the rogues in a ten-mile radius are probably heading this way to investigate."
"I don't care," I whisper. "Let them come."
He tilts his head, studying me. "You smell like rejected mate bond. Fresh. Still bleeding from it." His eyes narrow. "But you also smell like something else. Something I haven't smelled in a very, very long time."
"What?" I'm too tired to be afraid.
His smile is sharp. Dangerous. But somehow not threatening.
"Like a Primordial," he says softly. "Tell me, little wolf—do you know what you really are?"