Aria POV
"What do you want us to do, little mate?"
The ice-eyed Alpha's question hung in the frozen air. Five hundred wolves waited for my answer. The three most powerful Alphas in existence stood ready to carry out whatever revenge I demanded.
And I—Aria Blackwood, the slave, the orphan, the nothing—held the power to destroy everyone who'd ever hurt me.
My eyes found Damien on the platform. He was trembling, his face pale with terror. Scarlett clung to his arm, her perfect makeup running with tears.
They looked so scared. So pathetic.
Just like I'd looked moments ago when they destroyed me in front of everyone.
The broken part of me wanted to scream "Yes! Make them suffer! Make them hurt the way I hurt!"
But my voice came out quiet. Steady. "I want to leave."
The amber-eyed Alpha raised an eyebrow. "That's it? No revenge? No punishment?"
"They're not worth it." I looked at Damien one last time, and felt absolutely nothing. The love I'd carried for him was just... gone. Like it had never existed. "He made his choice. I'm making mine."
The ice-eyed Alpha studied me with something that might have been respect. "Very well. We'll discuss consequences later. Right now, you're coming with us."
"I'm not going anywhere." The words surprised me as much as them. "You say I'm a princess. Your sister. Your mate. But I don't know you. I don't know anything except that you're strangers who showed up at the worst moment of my life."
Luna Victoria made a strangled sound. "Aria, you ungrateful—"
"SILENCE." The storm-eyed Alpha's voice was quiet but absolutely terrifying. Victoria's mouth snapped shut so fast I heard her teeth click. "You don't get to speak. Not after what you've done."
"We haven't done anything," Victoria protested weakly. "We took in an orphan out of charity—"
"You enslaved a princess." The ice-eyed Alpha's words were sharp as knives. "You beat her. Starved her. Stole nineteen years of her life. And you will answer for every single crime."
Victoria's face went from red to white. "I-I didn't know who she was—"
"That makes it worse, not better," the amber-eyed Alpha said with a dangerous smile. "You tortured a child simply because you could. Because she was powerless and you enjoyed her suffering."
Scarlett started crying harder. "Daddy, do something!"
Alpha Cedric tried to stand, but the crushing Alpha power kept him on his knees. "My family didn't know—"
"Your family orchestrated tonight's humiliation." The storm-eyed Alpha gestured to me standing in my patched dress in the middle of the crowd. "They ensured she'd be publicly destroyed in the most painful way possible. That's not ignorance. That's deliberate cruelty."
I watched them defend me—these strangers who claimed to be my family—and felt something weird twist in my chest. Nobody had ever defended me before. Nobody had ever thought I was worth defending.
"We should kill them all," the amber-eyed one said casually, like he was discussing the weather. "Send a message about what happens to people who hurt what's ours."
"No." My voice was stronger this time. "No killing."
Three sets of powerful eyes locked onto me.
"They don't deserve mercy," the ice-eyed Alpha said.
"Maybe not. But I deserve to not become like them." I straightened my spine despite my fear. "If you kill them, you're making me responsible for their deaths. I've spent nineteen years being powerless. Don't take away my choice now."
Silence stretched across the clearing. The triplets exchanged looks I couldn't read.
Finally, the ice-eyed one nodded slowly. "As you wish. But they will face justice for their crimes. That's not negotiable."
"Fine." I was so tired. So completely exhausted from this entire nightmare of a night. "Can I go now?"
"Where?" the storm-eyed Alpha asked.
"I don't know. Anywhere but here."
"Then come with us," the ice-eyed one said, gentler this time. "We have answers you need. About who you are. Where you came from. Why your wolf is hidden."
That got my attention. "My wolf isn't hidden. I just don't have one."
"You do." The amber-eyed Alpha stepped closer, and I forced myself not to retreat. "Your wolf is sealed inside you. Has been since you were an infant. We can help you wake her."
Hope flared in my chest before I could stop it. A wolf. I could have a wolf. I wouldn't be broken anymore—
No. I couldn't let myself hope. Hope led to disappointment, and I'd had enough disappointment for one lifetime.
"Prove it," I said. "Prove I'm really your sister and not just some random orphan you mistook for a princess."
The ice-eyed Alpha moved so fast I didn't see him coming. Suddenly he was right in front of me, holding out his hand.
"May I?" he asked.
I nodded, not sure what he was asking permission for.
He pressed his palm against my chest, right over my heart. Power rushed through me—warm and electric and completely overwhelming. It didn't hurt, but it felt like lightning was dancing under my skin.
Then he pulled his hand back, and his palm was glowing with a silvery mark—three moons intertwined in a triangle.
"The Moonshadow royal crest," he said quietly. "Only appears when touching someone of our bloodline. You carry our family's magic in your veins, little sister. That's not something that can be faked."
I stared at the glowing mark, my mind refusing to accept what it meant.
Princess. I was actually a princess.
"Her wolf is stirring," the storm-eyed Alpha said suddenly, his gaze fixed on me with frightening intensity. "The seal is weakening. She felt the mate bond activate and she's trying to break through."
"Already?" The amber-eyed one looked surprised. "The prophecy said she wouldn't awaken until—"
"Until she stopped being afraid and started being angry," a new voice interrupted.
An ancient man appeared from the crowd—so old his face was more wrinkles than skin. But his eyes were sharp and knowing.
"Elder Thorne," the ice-eyed Alpha said respectfully. "You've been watching over her."
"Someone had to." The old man looked at me with something like pride. "The princess has survived nineteen years of abuse that would have broken stronger wolves. Her wolf has been protecting her by staying hidden. But now..."
He trailed off, staring at me with an expression I couldn't read.
"Now what?" I asked.
"Now you're angry," Elder Thorne said simply. "And anger is going to break that seal whether you're ready or not."
The moment he said it, pain exploded through my body.
I screamed, dropping to my knees as something inside me tore free. It felt like my bones were breaking and reforming, like fire was racing through my veins, like something massive and powerful was clawing its way out of a cage it had been trapped in for nineteen years.
The triplets lunged forward, trying to help, but Elder Thorne held them back.
"Don't interfere! The awakening has begun!"
"It's too soon!" the ice-eyed Alpha snarled. "She's not ready—the transition will kill her—"
"She's stronger than you think," Elder Thorne said calmly.
But I didn't feel strong. I felt like I was dying.
The pain intensified until I couldn't see, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. There was only agony and the sensation of something enormous forcing its way through my soul.
Then, from deep inside me, I heard a voice I'd never heard before:
Hello, Aria. I've been waiting for you.
My wolf. My wolf was talking to me.
We're going to show them what happens when you break a queen.
Power detonated from my body in a shockwave that sent wolves flying. The full moon overhead blazed brighter, and my scream turned into a howl that shattered windows in the packhouse.
When I opened my eyes, the world looked different. Sharper. Clearer. More alive.
And I could feel her—my wolf—finally awake and absolutely furious.
What's happening to me? I asked her silently.
We're becoming who we were always meant to be, she answered. And everyone who hurt us is about to learn what it means to anger the White Phoenix.