The forest didn't breathe for a long time.
Aria could still feel the echo of Malachi's whisper crawling under her skin, like cold fingers brushing the inside of her ribs. Caelum kept an arm around her as if letting go would invite the shadows back.
Rowan didn't move until the last of the ash vanished into the woods. Only then did he exhale, just once, long, tired, like he'd been expecting this moment for years and still dreaded it with every bone.
"We're leaving," he said. "Now."
Serin wiped the remaining blood running down her lip, her green eyes sharpening into something colder. "To the cabin?"
"No," Rowan replied. "The cabin isn't safe anymore. Nothing is, not while a piece of him rides the air."
Aria swallowed. "Did I… bring him here?"
Rowan's stern face twitched, but not unkindly. "You brought yourself home," he said softly. "He followed. That is not the same thing."
Caelum lifted Aria to her feet, slow and careful, as if she were glass that had been cracked and glued back together.
"You don't blame her," he growled at Rowan.
Rowan didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
They all knew this wasn't about blame.
It was about danger.
Real danger.
And by the look in Rowan's eyes, Aria wasn't the only one who felt him closing in.
SILVERREST…
Kael hadn't slept in two days.
He lay on his back in his dark room, staring at the ceiling as if it were a threat. He hadn't lit a lamp. He didn't need light.
Not when the bond did that for him.
It flickered like a stubborn flame in his chest, weak, strained, but alive. A pulse. A tug. A presence he had rejected but couldn't destroy.
"Stop," he muttered, pressing the heel of his hand into his sternum.
But it only pulsed harder.
Lyra slammed the door open.
She didn't bother knocking anymore.
"You're doing it again," she snapped. "Clawing at your own chest like you can dig her out."
Kael pushed up from the bed. "Get out."
"No," she shot back. "Because you're losing it and the entire pack feels it."
Kael's jaw clenched.
He didn't want to talk. Not about Aria. Not about the bond. Not about the sharp, cold ache twisting through him like barbed wire every time she breathed too far from his territory.
He didn't want…
He didn't want any of this.
Lyra stepped closer, voice dropping.
"She's gone. And she's not your problem anymore."
A flash of pain, raw, vicious slammed into his ribs from nowhere.
Kael froze.
Then doubled over, hand gripping the doorframe so hard the wood cracked.
Lyra's expression changed instantly.
"What happened? Kael"
"She's hurt."
He didn't mean to say it out loud.
But the bond didn't lie.
Something had grabbed Aria, something black and old and wrong and Kael felt it like a blade dragged down his spine. His wolf thrashed against him, desperate, frantic, howling like it was trapped in a burning cage.
He snapped his head toward Lyra, eyes glowing.
"She's in danger."
Lyra grabbed his arm. "Kael, listen to me"
But he ripped away from her.
"I can feel her," he hissed. "She's calling"
"No," Lyra growled, stepping between him and the door. "You rejected her. You don't get to run after her now."
Kael didn't hear her.
Because the bond surged again, sharp, electric, unbearable.
And under it…
A whisper.
Aria's voice.
Faint.
Distant.
Terrified.
Kael's breath left him.
He didn't hesitate this time.
He left the packhouse and shifted before he reached the steps, his wolf exploding out of him in a violent burst of red and black fur.
Lyra shouted after him.
But he was already gone, sprinting through trees like the forest itself was pulling him forward.
Toward her.
BACK IN THE FOREST
They followed Rowan through the trees.
He moved fast for someone his age, silent, precise, not wasting a single step. Serin walked beside Aria, fingers twitching with restrained magic.
"You look like death," Serin muttered.
Aria huffed a shaky breath. "I feel like someone chewed me up and spat me into three different realms."
Serin nodded. "So… normal Tuesday."
Despite everything, Aria let out a cracked laugh.
It felt good.
Fragile.
But good.
Caelum stayed close behind them, hyper-alert. Every sound made him turn. Every shift of light made him snarl softly.
"Stop growling," Serin whispered over her shoulder. "It's loud."
"Then stop breathing so loud," Caelum muttered back.
Serin scoffed. "You're the one breathing like a collapsing building."
Rowan didn't even look at them.
"Both of you be quiet."
Aria turned her face slightly toward Caelum as they walked.
"Do you… hear anything?"
He shook his head, but tension radiated off him like heat.
"No. But I feel watched."
Aria's skin prickled. She did too.
And…
Something else.
Something humming faintly in the pit of her stomach.
Caelum's hand brushed the small of her back, steadying her when her steps faltered. "You're shaking again."
"I'm fine," she whispered.
"You're lying."
She was.
But she didn't want to crumble again, not now, not in front of Rowan, not when it felt like the ground might open and swallow them whole.
Rowan stopped suddenly.
They'd reached another clearing.
Except this one wasn't empty.
A small wooden structure sat at the center, more of a shelter than a house, built from old timber and stone. It looked ancient, like it belonged to the first wolves that ever walked the land.
Aria felt the air change.
This place… was alive.
Rowan turned to them.
"You will stay close to the stones. Do not cross the boundary unless I tell you."
Caelum frowned. "Why?"
"Because something followed you." Rowan's gaze cut to Aria. "More than just the piece of Malachi we sensed earlier."
The hairs on Aria's neck rose.
Serin's fingers twitched again.
"Rowan…" she murmured.
He didn't answer.
He stepped forward, lifted his staff.
And drove it into the earth.
A circle of pale light erupted around the old structure, rising like a dome. The air hummed, thick and warm.
But it didn't feel protective.
It felt… uneasy.
Aria swallowed hard. "What is this place?"
Rowan didn't look back.
"A threshold," he said. "Between your world… and the one he came from."
Aria's pulse slowed.
Then dropped.
Then spiked so violently she staggered backward.
Caelum caught her again, arms around her waist.
"Aria!"
But it wasn't painful.
It wasn't fear.
It was…
A pull.
Sharp.
Relentless.
Alive.
Like something, or someone was dragging her heartbeat toward the trees.
Her breath hitched.
Caelum's voice cut through, panicked, "What is it? Aria"
Her voice came out hollow. "He's coming."
Caelum stiffened. "Malachi?"
Aria's head shook slowly.
"No."
The bond suddenly yanked at her so hard her knees buckled.
Not from the Realm.
Not from the shadows.
From something closer.
Familiar.
A wolf she'd tried to forget.
A wolf who had rejected her.
Her voice was barely audible.
"Kael."
Rowan turned sharply.
"What?"
"He's tracking me," she whispered, chest tightening. "Through the bond. He's coming here. Through the northern ridge."
Caelum's face darkened, emotions snapping between fury and something wounded.
"He rejected you. He shouldn't be able to feel anything."
"He can," Aria choked. "He feels everything."
Serin's eyes widened. "Rowan, what do we do? If a bonded Alpha enters this forest"
Rowan's expression went dead pale.
"We run," he said quietly.
"Now."
The trees trembled, a distant snarl echoing through the forest.
A snarl Aria knew.
And feared.
And felt in her bones.
Kael was coming.
And he wasn't coming alone.