The world was a blur of silver and shadows. Aurora felt the wind lashing against her face with a force that should have stolen her breath, yet, miraculously, her lungs filled with air with electric efficiency. Every time Castian leapt over a fallen log or dodged a branch, Aurora's body tensed instinctively, responding with an agility that defied everything she knew about herself.
Until a few hours ago, climbing the mansion stairs left her breathless. Now, clinging to the shoulders of this stranger, she felt as if her muscles were steel springs ready to fire. It was a sensation both terrifying and intoxicating.
"Don't let go," Castian growled near her ear. His voice was a low vibration that resonated directly in Aurora's chest.
"Where are you taking me? Let me go!" she managed to articulate, even as her fingers dug deeper into the leather of his jacket.
"If I let you go, those coming behind won't leave so much as your bones," he replied without slowing down.
Aurora sharpened her hearing. What she heard left her cold. It wasn't just footsteps; it was the sound of claws tearing into the earth and howls at a frequency that made her new teeth vibrate. The trail of the Baron and her family was gone, replaced by something much darker: pack trackers she didn't know, beings who howled her name as if it were a prayer or a curse.
Suddenly, Castian stopped dead in the middle of a clearing, setting Aurora on the ground. She stumbled, her long, goddess-like legs still unaccustomed to the firmness of the earth after the frantic flight.
"Stay behind me," Castian ordered, unsheathing his short sword.
From the bushes emerged four massive wolves with ash-colored fur and bloodshot eyes. They weren't half-shifted humans; they were full beasts, sent by the Southern Pack.
Aurora backed away, her back hitting a tree. "Hope?" "Lineage?" The way they looked at her wasn't with respect, but with a hungry adoration. It was the same look the Baron had given her, but multiplied by a thousand. Before, she was invisible because of her weight and common face; now, she was prey because of her perfection.
What followed was a dance of carnage. Castian lunged at the wolves with a ferocity that made Aurora cover her mouth to keep from screaming. There was no mercy in him. He dodged a snap at his neck and, in a fluid motion, sank his steel into the ash wolf's side. Blood sprayed, staining Aurora's pale skin, but Castian didn't even blink.
He fought like someone who hated the world as much as the world hated him. In his brutality, Aurora saw a reflection of her own suppressed rage—of all the years of humiliation she had swallowed in silence. When the last wolf fell, Castian turned toward her, his face splattered with red and his eyes ablaze.
"Stop! Leave me alone!" Aurora shouted, backing away. "You're a monster, just like them!"
Castian said nothing. He simply grabbed her arm and dragged her toward a curtain of water falling from a nearby rock wall. Behind the waterfall lay a narrow cave, barely lit by the moon's reflection on the water.
Aurora wrenched herself from his grip the moment they entered. Her purple eyes glowed in the darkness, fixed on him with a mixture of fury and fear.
"Answers. Now," she demanded, her voice trembling. "Who are you? What am I? And why does everyone seem to want to devour me since I woke up in that clearing?"
Castian wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. He approached her slowly, like a predator cornering its prey, until he had her against the damp cave wall.
"You are my mate, Aurora," he lied, his voice softening with expert falsehood. "I felt your awakening from miles away. I am a lone wolf, a pariah with no pack, and my only purpose since I saw you is to protect the bond the Moon has given us."
"Mate?" she repeated, the word sounding foreign on her lips. "My family sold me... no one has ever loved me. Don't try to deceive me with fairy tales. Look at me—I wasn't like this a few hours ago."
Castian leaned in closer, invading her personal space, surrounding her with his scent of storms and danger. His hand rose to touch a strand of her silver-white hair.
"That is the truth you need to understand," he whispered, appealing to Aurora's deepest wound. "The world is cruel. Your family despised you when you were 'weak,' and now that you are 'beautiful,' they only see you as a trophy. No one will ever see you for who you truly are, Aurora. To those wolves outside, you are a diamond in a nest of hyenas. They will use you, lock you up, and drain you until nothing remains of the girl you know."
Aurora felt a lump in her throat. His words were poison, but a poison she knew well. Her whole life she had been told her value depended on her appearance. Before, she was worth zero; now she seemed to be worth everything, but the feeling of being an object was the same.
"Only I can keep you safe," Castian continued, his gray gaze locking onto her lips. "Because I know what it's like to be discarded. I accept the girl who was beneath the mud, not just this queen you see in the reflection. But if you leave my side, you will die in a golden cage before the week is out."
Aurora looked at him, searching for a crack in his mask. For a second, she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe this dark warrior was the only one who could see her soul. But then, something shifted.
The moonlight hit Castian's face from a different angle. For a brief instant, his gray eyes didn't just glow—they changed. One pupil elongated, and a flash of unnatural gold—a color that belonged to neither human nor pure wolf—crossed his iris. It was the mark of his hybrid lineage, the secret he worked so hard to hide.
"Your eyes..." Aurora began, her heart hammering against her ribs. "What are you really, Castian?"
He tensed, his jaw tightening, but before he could spin another lie, the air outside the waterfall exploded with howls. It wasn't four wolves this time. It was an entire pack, and the smell of iron and silver filled the cave entrance.
"They're here," Castian said, his voice turning back to ice.
He extended his hand toward her, palm open.
"If you cross that waterfall alone, the border Alphas will claim you as their breeding slave for the prophecy. If you take my hand, we flee together to the Forbidden Lands. The choice is yours, Aurora. Do you trust the man who tells you the cold truth, or the world that only wants to possess your reflection?"
Aurora looked at Castian's hand and then at the curtain of water separating her from a hungry pack. The fear of her past fought the terror of her future. She knew he was hiding something—she had seen it in his eyes—but the shadow of her father and the Baron was even darker.
Outside, the howls turned into heavy footsteps on the water. They were seconds away from entering.
Aurora took a deep breath and, with trembling fingers, placed her hand in Castian's.