Aria didn't feel her legs, just Caelum's hand clamped around her wrist and the pull of wind as he yanked her out of the collapsing alley. Shadows snapped behind them like ropes being cut, Malachai's voice echoing after them in a way that felt like it was stitched into her bones.
"Run," Caelum hissed, his voice steady but breath sharp at the edges. "Don't look back."
She tried not to.
She tried to pretend the shadows weren't crawling over the walls, stretching long fingers toward them.
She tried to pretend her ribs weren't vibrating, her wolf wasn't pushing awake like something trapped in a coffin for too long.
But the world didn't care about pretending.
Rain slicked the narrow street ahead as they burst out of the alley. Neon lights flickered overhead blue, pink, then a dead static white, like they couldn't keep up with whatever was happening inside her.
Aria gasped, hand pressed to her burning chest. "Why? Why did my wolf react like that? I don't even… I don't even shift."
"Not now," Caelum said, tugging her left as a cluster of shadows slammed into the pavement behind them, exploding into dust. "Save the questions."
His voice was clipped, serious nothing like the warm phantom her mind kept insisting she remembered from somewhere. That voice had once told her she was safe. This voice said danger was breathing down her neck.
But they felt painfully the same.
Another turn. Another sprint. Her lungs strained with a raw, metallic taste at the back of her tongue. Caelum was faster, stronger, moving like the shadows didn't scare him. Like he'd been running from things like this all his life.
Maybe he had.
"Caelum" she tried again.
He cut her off. "Later."
Everything inside her pulsed again, this time harder, like her heart was trying to break through her ribs. She staggered.
Caelum was instantly there, gripping her shoulders, breath warm against her forehead. "Stay with me, Aria. Just a little more."
And that's when she caught it. That familiarity. Not his words, but the way he said her name. Soft around the edges. Careful. Almost like he wasn't a stranger at all.
Before she could ask, before she could even breathe through it…
A howl cracked the sky.
Not Malachai's shadows.
Wolves.
Real ones.
Pack wolves.
Caelum cursed under his breath, an actual curse, raw and fully human and pushed her forward.
"We're not out of danger," he said, jaw tightening. "Kael's men are circling. They've been on our trail since we left the alley."
Aria stumbled. "But Kael was just… I saw him. Why would he?"
"He's always watching." Caelum's grip hardened. "And you are officially a problem."
She wanted to disagree, to say she wasn't anything, that she was nobody. But the memory of the heat in her chest told her otherwise.
They burst out of the last row of buildings and slammed straight into a wall of wolves.
Not literal wolves.
Men in human form, broad-shouldered, intimidating, eyes glowing faintly in the half-light.
Kael's pack.
Caelum skidded to a stop. His body shifted defensively in front of her without thinking like he'd done this before, like protecting her was a reflex he couldn't fight.
Aria didn't understand any of it, but she didn't have time to.
A figure stepped through the line of pack warriors.
Kael.
His expression carved from ice, his eyes colder than the rain soaking their clothes. His jaw flexed once, like he was annoyed, not threatened, not scared, just tired of everyone else's stupidity.
His gaze flicked to Caelum.
Then to Aria.
Then back to Caelum.
"You're both under arrest."
Caelum didn't flinch. "She isn't what you think."
"Exactly," Kael replied, voice snapping like a trap, "I don't know what she is. And that's the problem."
Two warriors moved forward.
Aria instinctively stepped back.
Something in Kael twitched, just barely but she saw it. That same instinct from the alley. The one he had no right to feel toward someone he'd rejected.
But he didn't stop his men.
He didn't stop anything.
Caelum tried to shield her again, but this time Kael was faster. Stronger. Alpha aura slammed through the air like a wall of pressure, and Caelum gritted his teeth, muscles locking.
And Aria…
Her chest burned.
Her wolf snarled.
And suddenly she couldn't breathe.
"Don't touch her!" Caelum barked.
But two warriors already had her arms pinned.
Her vision blurred. The pressure of their grip made her pulse stutter. Something old and buried inside her started clawing up her spine.
Kael's eyes widened a fraction. "Her power"
He didn't finish.
Aria didn't explode with light.
She didn't transform.
She didn't do anything dramatic.
She just… snapped.
A breath.
A tiny tilt of her head.
A surge of heat that rippled under her skin like molten metal waking up.
The two warriors pinning her stumbled back as if burned.
Kael's eyes darkened instantly. "Sedate her."
"No!" Caelum pushed forward, but three warriors held him back. He struggled, teeth clenched, eyes wild with something close to panic. "Kael, listen, she can't control it"
"I don't need her to control it," Kael said coolly. "I need her contained."
And that was it.
The last thing she remembered before darkness pulled her under was Kael's voice, flat, emotionless, but carrying something buried deep that she couldn't name.
"Take them both."
Aria woke up on a cold stone.
The air was damp. Metallic. A scent of iron and moss. Her vision pulsed into clarity bars, shadows, dim torchlight, and a narrow corridor lined with cells.
She was in the Lunarhaven holding dungeons.
Her wrists were bound with silver-thread cuffs, soft enough not to blister but strong enough to silence whatever had flared inside her earlier.
A quiet breath sounded nearby.
Caelum.
He sat on the floor of the cell beside hers, back against the wall, legs stretched long, wrists bound like hers. His hair was messy, damp from the rain, a bruise forming along his jaw. But his eyes, his eyes were sharp, alert, watching her like she was the only thing he needed to keep track of.
"You're awake," he said softly.
His voice…
That voice again.
The one from the past she barely remembered.
Aria swallowed. "What happened?"
"You fainted." He shifted closer. "And Kael used that as an excuse to lock us up before your power triggered again."
"My… power." She whispered the word like it didn't belong to her.
Caelum hesitated "just a flicker."
Then he leaned forward slightly, voice dropping.
"Aria… there are things you don't know about your lineage. And he," Caelum's gaze drifted upward, toward where Kael's territory lay above them, "is terrified of what it means."
Before she could ask…
A sharp scoff came from the shadows of the cell across from hers.
"Well, isn't this cute?"
Aria's head snapped up.
Lyra.
Beautiful. Aggravating. Sharp-eyed. The girl who looked like the moon kissed her forehead and the shadows painted her hair. She sat with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them, glaring directly at Aria.
"You," Lyra said, her voice a mix of accusation and exhaustion, "are the reason everything is falling apart."
Aria blinked. "What?"
"You show up," Lyra continued, "Kael starts acting weird, Caelum disappears, Malachai invades the city, and the entire pack is on edge. Congratulations. You've managed to ruin everything in one day."
Aria felt the sting. It wasn't just the words, it was the truth buried somewhere inside them. Kael's reaction. Malachai's pursuit. Caelum throws himself in front of her like he'd die first before letting anyone else touch her.
Lyra's gaze didn't soften. "You don't belong here."
Aria's voice cracked. "Believe me, I didn't ask for any of this."
Lyra's lip twitched maybe amusement, maybe irritation but before she could reply, heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Kael.
His presence filled the narrow hallway before he even appeared. His aura pressed against her skin, not harsh like in the alley. Colder. Controlled. Calculated.
He stopped in front of Aria's cell.
Those storm-colored eyes met hers.
"Stand."
She didn't move.
He clenched his jaw. "Aria. Stand."
Her pulse hammered. She pushed herself to her feet, every muscle tense.
Kael stared at her cuffs. "Your wolf awakened last night. But it didn't fully surface." His eyes lifted to hers. "Why?"
"I don't know," she whispered.
Caelum interrupted sharply. "Because she's suppressing herself. She's scared."
Kael shot him a glare sharp enough to cut.
"I wasn't speaking to you."
"And you weren't doing anything to help her," Caelum snapped back.
The tension between them tightened like a rope pulled too far. There was history there. Fury. And something older beneath it that neither wanted to acknowledge.
Kael turned back to Aria, voice lower. "Your wolf, your power… it's dangerous. And uncontrolled. Until I understand what you are, you stay here."
Aria swallowed hard. "And if I'm not what you think?"
Kael stared at her for a long, unreadable second.
"Then you're even more dangerous than I feared."
He turned to leave.
But he froze mid-step.
Aria felt it before he did, a faint pulse in her chest. A flare of something that didn't belong to her alone. Something ancient. Violent. A whisper threading through her spine.
Aria… run…
Her hand trembled. Her breath hitched.
Caelum's eyes widened. "Aria don't!"
Too late.
Her power surged accidentally, small but visible. The silver cuffs sparked, resisting. The torches flickered violently. Shadows twisted, contorting like they recognized her.
And somewhere above ground.
Malachai felt it.
A low rumble vibrated through the stone walls.
Lyra's eyes snapped wide. "Not here, not now!"
Kael spun around, face paling for the first time.
"What did you just do?"
Aria backed up, heart pounding. "I… I didn't"
But the shadows in the corners of the dungeon thickened, curving upward like hands rising from the grave.
Caelum lunged to his feet. "Kael, get her out of here, NOW!"
Shadows split open like a wound.
A whisper drifted through the dungeon, smooth and hungry:
"Moonblood…"
Aria staggered.
The walls shook.
Torches died.
And Malachai's voice curled around her spine
"…found you."