Night air slams into my face as I burst through the back doors of the pack house, lungs screaming, legs shaking. The music from the gala muffles behind me, swallowed by the thick forest stretching out in front of the Hale estate.
My bones still feel wrong.
Too loose.
Too tight.
Too ready to shift again.
"Aurora!"
Kade's voice rolls through the courtyard behind me, rough and frantic.
The mate bond snaps tight, yanking at my ribs, begging me to turn around, to go to him, to be near him, anything but this distance.
I grit my teeth and shove the sensation down like poison.
I am not his.
I will not be his.
I would rather tear my wolf out than let him claim me.
The pull tugs harder.
My wolf snarls inside.
"He is ours."
"He is a nightmare," I shoot back. "Shut up."
She bristles but doesn't argue.
Not out loud.
I sprint into the treeline, shoes slipping on damp leaves. Branches slap my arms, my half-shifted bones creak in protest. Every sound is painfully loud now , owls, wolves in the distance, the rush of riverwater, even my own heartbeat.
But the loudest thing is the footsteps behind me.
Heavy. Fast. Alpha-fast.
"Aurora, stop!"
His voice cracks on my name this time.
Good.
Let him hurt.
I push harder.
If I can just get deeper into the woods, maybe I can lose him. The forest behind the Hale estate sprawls for miles, thick with pines and rocky dens. I used to hide here when I was younger , sometimes for hours, just to get away from the cruel eyes and whispered insults.
But tonight the moon is full, and the world feels too sharp, too alive. Every shadow holds weight, every scent is a story. My wolf is wide awake and pacing inside me, furious that I'm running from what she calls "our mate" and terrified I'll let him catch me.
"You can't hold the shift much longer," she warns. "If you don't let me complete it, you will collapse."
"I am not shifting with him watching," I growl aloud.
"Then run faster," she snaps.
Branches whip across my face as I plunge deeper. My body wobbles and steadies, wobbles and steadies, like it can't decide which shape it belongs in. Heat ripples across my spine, a violent pulse of shifting energy nearly knocking me to my knees.
"Aurora!"
He's closer.
Too close.
I whip around a tree and skid to a stop, chest heaving. Not because I want to face him , but because the ground ends abruptly in a steep ravine. The moonlight glints off a narrow river churning below.
Of course.
Of course fate cornered me here.
Behind me, leaves crunch, followed by a low growl.
Kade steps into view, chest rising with harsh, uneven breaths. His eyes glow too bright, pupils blown wide with the mate bond's intensity. His shirt is half-untucked, his hair disheveled, like he tore through half the forest without thinking.
And when his gaze lands on me, something inside him breaks open.
"Aurora," he rasps.
"Don't come closer."
He stops.
For a heartbeat.
Then he takes one more step anyway.
"Don't," I say again.
His hands flex at his sides as if fighting the instinct to grab me. His wolf is close to the surface, I can smell the wildness on him, see the tremble in his jaw.
"Rory," he whispers, voice hoarse, "please."
"No." My voice wavers but doesn't break. "You don't get to say my name like that."
His breath stutters. He looks away for a second, like the words physically hit him.
"I didn't choose this," I say quietly. "I never wanted you. Not then. Not now. Not ever."
He flinches.
Actually flinches.
"Do you think I wanted this?" he shoots back, rough. "Do you think I woke up today hoping the Moon Goddess would bind me to the girl I, " He swallows hard. "The girl I hurt?"
"You didn't just 'hurt' me, Kade. You broke me."
He opens his mouth. Closes it. His throat works as he searches for something to say that won't damn him.
The silence is worse than anything.
Finally, he whispers, "I know."
A shock goes through me.
Because Kade Blackthorn… admitting wrong?
That has never happened.
Not once.
Not in twenty-two years of him walking this earth like he was a gift to it.
"I know I was cruel to you," he says, voice strained, "but I didn't, I wasn't, I didn't understand, "
"Stop." My voice cracks like ice. "Don't make excuses."
He steps closer. "I'm trying to apologize, "
"No, you're trying to soothe the bond. You're trying to ease the pain in your chest."
He freezes.
Because it's true.
His eyes flicker with shock , and something like shame.
I inhale shakily. "You don't get to pretend this is about me."
The bond tugs sharply, painfully, at the rejection. A burn spreads across my chest, hot and unforgiving. Kade winces, hand clenching over his heart.
"Aurora, "
"This isn't love. This is biology. Magic. A bond that shouldn't exist." I take a step back, heel skidding near the edge. "You don't want me, Kade. You never did. I was your favorite target."
His face contorts, pained and raw. "I didn't, I never meant, "
"You spent years making sure I knew I was worthless."
His jaw clenches so tightly I hear the grind of teeth.
"You weren't worthless," he bites out, voice cracking. "You terrified me."
I blink.
"What?"
His breath comes fast, uneven. "I didn't understand it then. I didn't recognize what the pull was. You were… different. Wrong. I felt things around you I wasn't supposed to feel. And I didn't know how to handle that."
"So you bullied me?" My voice rises. "That's your brilliant explanation?"
He shuts his eyes, shame flickering through his expression. "I was a coward."
No one moves.
The forest holds its breath.
My wolf goes very still.
Inside my chest, something unexpected tinges with confusion, softening for a fraction of a second,
No.
No softness.
Not for him.
Not now.
Not ever.
My bones suddenly twist again, sharp, urgent, demanding.
The shift tries to rip through me.
"Rory?" Kade's voice is instantly panicked. "You need to stop fighting it. You're hurting yourself, "
"Stay back."
"You can't hold it, "
"I said stay back!"
The force of my scream makes him freeze.
Moonlight slices across my skin.
My spine arches. Pain surges through my limbs. I feel my wolf clawing upward, furious and impatient.
"She's coming," my wolf snarls. "Move."
My knees buckle.
Kade lunges forward on instinct,
And I throw my power out.
I don't know how.
I don't know what I do.
But something inside me explodes, raw, electrical energy twisting out of my half-shifted body in a shockwave that sends him crashing backward into a tree trunk.
He hits hard.
The forest gasps around us.
Kade staggers, dazed but alive, eyes wide with shock.
"Aurora," he whispers, breathless. "That wasn't a normal shift."
My hands tremble violently.
I feel it too.
Something ancient.
Something dangerous.
Something the pack never expected to awaken in me.
A faint glow pulses under my skin, like a mark written in moonlight.
Kade's voice drops to a whisper full of awe and dread.
"You're a Marked wolf."
A chill races down my spine.
Before I can respond, before I can breathe, voices erupt in the distance as pack members pour into the forest, drawn by the explosion of energy.
Kade's head snaps toward them.
Then back to me.
"Run," he says hoarsely. "If they see what you are right now, run, Rory. Please."
I stare at him, shocked by the desperation in his voice.
But he isn't my Alpha.
He isn't my mate.
Not if I have any say in it.
So I turn,
And run deeper into the dark.
Behind me, the pack howls.
Kade howls too.
Not in anger.
In agony.