E: Ashes an

Quinn'

the betrayal. How could Kael... How could he choose her over me? After everything." "He has lost more than you'll ever know. But you, Aria, you're stronger than any of them. Stronger than you think." Ezra said. I heard his voice echo in my brain as I went back to the table and let the years pile on top of me like chains. In this new place, I was learning to shed those chains. Training with Ronan, Ezra and Nyra was grueling, yet every strike, every lesson carved away the fragile shell of the omega I once was. My body grew stronger, but it was the fire inside, the quiet resolve that was truly awakening. I remembered the first time I faced the sparring circle, my hands trembling, my breath shallow. The other warriors had sneered, certain I would break under their blows. But Ronan had been patient, relentless, teaching me to harness not just strength but willpower. "You have the blood of a queen, Aria," he had told me once. "But a queen rules through her mind and heart before her fists." I was learning what that meant, piece by piece. Yet, there was something else. At times, when I closed my eyes, I felt a strange warmth rising from my core, a pulse that didn't belong to any normal werewolf. A power waiting to be claimed. It stirred beneath the surface, fragile and fierce all at once. Ezra had found me hours later, a solitary figure amidst the devastation. I'd been staring at my reflection in one of the chambers of glass that littered the tangle, and though it was dark outside the factory those grey eyes burned with a light he hadn't seen before. "You're awakening." His whisper echoed in memories that still flickered across his consciousness like holograms. I didn't inquire the manner in which he had become possessed of such knowledge. Because in this place, surrounded by power and secrets, I was beginning to see myself not as the broken omega I once was, but as something more. Something dangerous. Something royal. Sitting there in the slowly shrinking moonlit room, I could already feel the burden of that yet unattained crown. Not a crown