Aurora

The light spilling from the chandelier touches my skin and glides over my simple white cotton dress. But right now, the hall seems to turn in slow motion.

Dominic...

His pack was the one that rescued me. The one that took care of me, or at least that was what I thought. I shared secrets with him. Secrets no one else knew.

We made vows of love.

But now my eyes are fixed on him, full of tears, and there is no love in them. Only pain. Pure pain.

"You..." My voice comes out shaking. "You lied to me this whole time? But why? You said you loved me... that we'd be together, Dominic."

At last, a tear slips from my eyes.

Everyone at the banquet is staring at me. I feel the weight of hundreds of gazes pressing down. Dominic walks toward me, descends from his throne, and stops right in front of me. Close enough that I can smell his pack on him. But now that scent makes me step back.

"You're weak," he spits, the word leaving his mouth with disgust, as if it were poison on his tongue. "A useless thing who never awakened her wolf. A nobody I scraped up off the ground."

He takes a deep breath. His chest expands.

"Using you was nothing more than a plan. A means to an end. I needed to expand my territory. Your original lands... they were valuable."

He looks me over from head to toe. His eyes shine with a cruelty I have never seen before. Or maybe it was always there and I simply never wanted to see it.

"You only helped me get what I wanted. Your lands are mine now. They're under my rule. And you..." He pauses, leaving the word hanging like a guillotine. "You don't even have the bearing to be a Luna. You're ridiculous."

Then Samanta, the she-wolf who used to drift around the palace giving me sidelong little smiles, the one Dominic insisted was a wonderful friend, walks up to him. Now I see the truth in those smiles. I see the greed. I see her victory.

"Are you two together?" I ask in a whisper, my eyes still wet, my lips trembling.

Her smile widens when Dominic opens his arms and pulls her against his chest. A commotion ripples through the pack guests. Howls of approval. Of support.

My heart breaks into pieces.

"She's so much better than you, Aurora. In every way, if you understand what I mean."

He gives me a mocking smile, glancing sideways as he measures me from head to toe like discarded merchandise.

"You... you're just you. A pitiful girl anyone can use. A stupid, naive girl who actually believes everyone has a good heart."

His smile grows. That smile I once thought was beautiful.

"That? That's exactly what caused your fall," he says.

For a moment, I go still. I don't know whether to smile, cry, or scream. All of those possibilities pass through my mind, painful and sharp. But I do none of them.

It still hurts. I won't lie. The pain is real, physical, almost unbearable. But something inside me, something I cannot name, wakes up.

So I simply walk to the table. My hand moves as if it has a will of its own. I pick up the ceremonial dagger resting there. Everyone cries out in fear. I hear screams. I hear chairs scraping and crashing as the pack draws back.

And then, with one quick, precise motion, I cut my own palm.

I close my fist.

The silence in the hall is absolute.

I look at Dominic while the cut stings and burns. While blood begins to drip onto the table, drop by drop, each one like a bell marking the end of an era.

"I..." I begin, my voice steady now, strong now. "I accept your rejection, Dominic Salazar. And from this day forward, you will have no power over me."

A snap echoes through the hall. It is not a physical sound. It is magical. Ancient. It is the energetic thread that bound us, that sacred bond between an Alpha and his Luna, being torn apart.

It feels as if something has been ripped out of me. But I also feel... freedom. I start walking, my hand still dripping blood onto the hall floor.

"It's done," I say as I pass him, so close our shoulders almost touch, though there is nothing between us anymore. Nothing but emptiness. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? This is what you got."

No one tries to stop me.

I leave the hall with steady steps, cross the grand corridor, and descend the front stairs. Then, as if the universe itself recognizes the moment, a torrential rain begins to fall.

But right now, I do not care about the rain. I let it fall over me. I let it wash my face, my dress, my hair. I let it carry away the tears.

I let it carry away everything.

The forbidden forest waits ahead. Dark. Wild. Deadly. But at this point, I have nothing left to lose. So I walk toward it.

And I do not look back.

Kael

I urge the horse faster.

"Ahhhh," I say, lifting the reins slightly as the animal leaps over a fallen trunk.

Rain comes down hard, thick and relentless, plastering strands of my hair to my face. My jaw tightens. There is something in the forest tonight. Something different.

And the howls of rogues echo through the trees. I hear everything. Every sound. Every breath. The heavy thud of something, or someone, falling into the mud.

A young woman.

My horse's hooves sink into the grass, mud exploding around them.

And then...

"HELP!" Her cry rings out nearby. Desperate. Terrified.

As soon as I reach the place, I see her. Small, fragile, defenseless, surrounded by rogue wolves. They growl in unison, a chorus of hunger and savagery. Their eyes gleam with the primitive fury of the hunt.

She points nothing but a piece of wood at them, as if she can defend herself with it. As if a branch could save her from what is coming.

I look at her leg and see the deep cut there. Scratches mark her arms in patterns that tell the story of a fall, or a fight. The forbidden forest is merciless to outsiders.

So I simply leap from my horse, shifting in midair into my massive black wolf. I land in front of her, snarling viciously at the rogues. The sound that tears from my throat is pure ancestral power.

They whine. They hesitate. Then they lower their heads and begin to back away slowly in the face of my presence. It is always like this. They know who I am.

The Supreme of the forbidden forest.

Thunder follows my snarl, as if the sky itself is answering. White light bursts through the rain. I turn toward the small intruder, but only in time to see her raise a finger, drop the piece of wood, and say, "I think... I'm not... okay."

Her eyes roll back. Her body gives way.

Before she can fall, I return to my human form and catch her in my arms. Her body is small and fragile compared to mine. Almost too fragile.

I whistle sharply, and my horse comes back to me, obedient. I set her carefully on its back, then mount behind her, holding her unconscious body against my chest.

Raindrops strike her face, soaking her even more. Carefully, I move a lock of hair stuck to her neck and breathe in her scent.

My whole body freezes.

"You're a she-wolf?" I say, more to myself than to her, since she remains unconscious and motionless. "Then why didn't you summon your wolf? Why didn't you shift?"

It intrigues me in a way I did not expect. Her scent is different. Completely different. She smells of lavender. Ancient lavender.

"I've never smelled that on another she-wolf," I whisper against her damp hair.

Her face is pale beneath the rain, but there is something in it. Something I recognize, though I cannot name it. As if I am looking at a secret the world has forgotten.

I study her again, taking in every detail. The delicate shape of her face. The curve of her brows. The color of her lips.

"Who are you?" I ask quietly, my eyes still fixed on her face, as if she could answer me in her sleep.

Then I urge my horse on, carrying her with me through the dark forest, toward my castle. Toward the fortress where I will find out exactly who, or what, she truly is.

Dominic

I am sitting on my throne with a drink in hand when Heitor, my beta, hurries in, pushing open the doors to the hall that now stands empty and lonely after dinner. His footsteps echo through the silence.

"Alpha," he says with a brief bow, head lowered in respect. "I have news about the she-wolf Aurora, if you wish to hear it."

A dry, disbelieving laugh leaves me. The drink burns my throat when I lift the goblet to my lips again.

"She-wolf? If there is one thing that girl isn't, it's a wolf."

I roll my eyes, but my whole body is tense.

"Fine, then. Tell me. What happened? Did that useless thing fall in the rain and die?"

There is hope in my voice. Hope that everything might disappear that way. That she might disappear.

Heitor clears his throat, nervous.

"Worse than that, sir. She was seen entering the forbidden forest."

I straighten on the throne. My body moves before my mind gives it permission. The drink darkens inside the goblet.

"The forbidden forest? Are you certain, Heitor?"

My voice comes out sharper than I intended. He nods, taking a step forward.

"Yes, Alpha. Pack wolves saw her go in there. Alone. In the rain. And you know who rules those wild lands, don't you? The one many don't even dare to name."

Kael.

The name rises in my mind like a specter.

I stand from the throne, adjusting my clothes with abrupt movements. I walk to one of the tall windows overlooking the garden. To the rain still falling through the darkness outside.

"That idiot will die in there," I say, but my voice sounds strange. Forced. "Leave her. I have nothing to do with her anymore."

I place my hand against the cold glass. It is icy.

"For all I care, he can kill her. He'd be doing me a favor."

The words leave my mouth like stones. Heavy. False.

Because the truth?

The truth is that I feel something in my chest now. An emptiness. A pain that should not be here. But it is. Because she should not matter.

And that enrages me.

(...)

It is deep into the night when a damned bolt of lightning wakes me. I sit up sharply in bed, my whole body going on alert.

"Aurora!" Her name bursts from me automatically.

It escapes my mouth before I can stop it.

I swallow hard and look at Samanta, sleeping carelessly beside me, covered by darkness and the sheet. She turns in bed, mumbling something I cannot make out, as if she heard nothing. As if nothing matters.

I get up and walk to the window. I stop beside it and watch the dark night outside flash white beneath the storm. The sky seems to be celebrating, a furious, savage celebration.

The rain will not stop falling. Hard. Torrential. As if the universe itself is convulsing.

My chest rises and falls frantically.

"You idiot... you must be dead by now," I whisper into the dark bedroom, where only lightning illuminates my silhouette. But the words do not sound true.

I strike the window with my fist.

"Damn it! What is happening to me?" I say, pressing my other hand to my chest.

Because it hurts. It hurts badly. As if something inside me is being torn out piece by piece.

"That wretched girl... what did she do to me?"

I feel dazed. My breath will not come right.

"The bond was cut," I whisper to myself, trying to convince my own body of a truth it refuses to accept. "I shouldn't be affected. So why am I? What the hell?"

My voice comes out in a furious hiss.

At that moment, I watch lightning strike farther ahead on my property. It is so close, so violent, that it shorts out the wiring. The bulbs inside the room burst even though they are off, glass shattering across the floor like inverted rain.

"AHHHHHH! WHAT WAS THAT?" Samanta screams in panic, sitting up abruptly in bed, eyes wide.

But I do not answer. I only stand there, motionless before the window, while the storm keeps roaring outside.

And I feel, with absolute certainty, that something has changed.

Aurora is not dead.

And I am losing control of something even I do not understand.