hes. A bitter wind swept over the crowd, carrying a silence thick with unease. Aria stood just beyond the circle of pack elde

gue stranger whose name she still didn't know. Her body ached from

ood beside Lyla Vexmoor. Aria's stepsister looked radiant in a crimson

sed their hand

ade across the quiet. "Tonight,

tep forward, her throat burnin

ainted lips. "Oh, sweet sister," she whis

s braided with ash-thread, and her eyes-pale as snow-seemed to glow with something older than the laws they served.

he gathered pack like

bedded in thorn. That scroll had been hidden in a locked chest beneath the floo

ees tr

e almost lost beneath the

but with truth. "Some secrets fight the

t care, and the air thickened. As if

like thunder over still water, "this is the charge laid forth: unlawful scent manipulation and forbidden

Alphas. The term wasn't used lightly. Ari

mug, poisoned thin

distortion to mimic Aria Moonstone's natural bond with Ryker Thorne Witnesses have testified to an abrupt change in aura

ed sile

rs began-fractur

tole a

agic-blood-

ver Ryker

, nails digging into her palms. Her wolf, though weak and

ression no longer cold but fractured-like a warri

yla. "Tell me

er eyes shimmered with someth

oft as it was venomous. "You never ques

p of

claws. His gaze darted to Aria-who didn't flinch,

t the words blurred behind

d been

y acc

by d

xmoor line. Another-Lyla, smiling as they played in the river

r wolf didn't

For a broken truth. For a bond that

nlight in winter-suddenly twisted. A violent tremor of magic surged

and flew to her chest as a searing heat bloomed over her sternum. Her vision blurred. T

it b

string. Not like

t

frostbitten earth. The gasp that left her lips was not just pai

between them-the thing that had tethered her soul to Ryker'

y. No w

y in the back of her mind

tood mo

her. Didn't cry out.

jaw locked, as if it were her pain that embarrassed

he simply turned, her pale gold hair swinging o

time to see the last

d, slid behind a veil of drifting clo

e-deep in the forest where the pack

Ashbo

by moonlight and silence. His golden eyes glo

pi

just

gnit

The lies written in the silence. The

een her-Aria

did not rush forward. He did not shout. The fore

he w

tc

she dropped her eyes, too broken to question why a st

was called again, Kade Ashbourne disappeared i

fire had

sn't done

id not

nants of her bond still seared beneath her skin, an echo of agony that refused to fade. The hole left beh

dy sky, her breath catchin

asped, her voice raw from pa

er. They didn't shatter the sk

like a blade o

ce fo

. Cha

ding, but no longer hiding either. Her eyes, ancient and weathere

o Ryker. Others because truth, when inconvenient, w

ories of what it meant to be Luna to be chosen by the Moon. And now they wat

stepped

wed beneath dark hair. His voic

should explain,"

ed. Ryker's gl

ut the ripple had alr

t a reb

t

ack in t

no words of comfort. But as she passed, she left the scroll-its wax seal cra

she wal

aid nothing as she departed, arm wrapped around Ryker's like she

ld set

r the torches were extinguish

orest watc

stars bor

hovered over

reached for it

de no sound on the frostbitten ground. Aria didn't see his face. Only the glint of go

beat, he lo

he va

e scent-the same rogue who had watched h

itory. She curled in on herself beneath bare branches and curling mist, arms tight over

l... she

she w

nside her something stirred-someth

lence, her wol

rds. Not

in f

a mate to rise. The kind t

nd, the w

he beg

, the first leaf cu

had been lit-not wit

ver stays bu