The scent of pine and ash lingered in the air, thick with the metallic tang of blood.

Aria lay crumpled on the cold stone floor of the ceremonial chamber, cheek pressed to the ground. Her shoulder throbbed where her mating mark once burned-Ryker Thorne's name, now gone. Just raw, reddened skin. Bare. Empty.

Gone.

Sunlight filtered through the stained-glass window above her, casting fractured colors over her bruised skin. Dust floated in the still air like dying stars.

Her wolf-the wild heartbeat within her-was silent. Not just quiet. Gone.

She blinked. Breathed. Pain radiated through her ribs. She tried to sit up but her body screamed. Her fingers brushed her shoulder. No glow. No warmth. No bond.

Just absence.

"You were never mine," Ryker had said, his voice like a stone in a blizzard. "I revoke the bond."

The words hit harder than claws. And behind him, wrapped in silver and venom, stood Lyla Vexmoor.

"She tried to bind him with scent magic," Lyla had whispered to the Council. "She was desperate. Dangerous."

And they had believed her. They always believed her.

The ceremonial chamber echoed with every breath she took.

The heavy oak doors creaked open.

Two enforcers. Broad-shouldered. Faces hidden behind silver masks.

"Moonstone Aria," one barked. "The Council has ruled. You are to be cast out by sundown."

She tried to speak. Plead. Something. But her voice was dust.

They hauled her up like a broken trophy. Her knees buckled. They didn't care.

Behind them, Lyla's laugh ghosted through the air.

The trial began as the sun dipped below the peaks.

The pack square reeked of blood and judgment.

Aria stood in front of the Silver Hollow Council, wrists bound, her ceremonial robe torn and stained. Her feet bare against the frozen earth.

The crowd was silent-except for the whispers. The stares. The glee.

Ryker stood beside Lyla now. The new mark on Lyla's neck glowed red, fresh and gleaming.

He had chosen.

Elder Rowan's voice broke through the crowd. "You stand accused of treason, of forbidden magic, and of threatening your Luna successor. How do you plead?"

Aria lifted her chin.

"I plead that you look into your own rotten hearts before judging mine."

A gasp.

A slap.

"Watch your tongue."

Blood dripped from her lip. She spit it out.

"I have nothing left to lose."

The sentence fell like a blade: exile. name stripped. legacy erased.

They dragged her through the pack like a criminal.

But from the shadows beyond the trees, eyes watched.

The climb down the mountain was never meant to be taken alone-especially not like this.

Not after exile.

Not after betrayal.

Not half-alive.

Snow bit at her bare feet, each step slicing her skin open like a punishment.

The wind howled through the skeletal trees, dragging her hair across her face, lifting the hem of her torn ceremonial dress-a once-sacred garment now soaked in blood and shame.

> It clung to her like a curse.

A second skin she hadn't asked for. One she couldn't shed.

Behind her, the guards trudged without sympathy.

One jabbed the butt of his spear into her spine.

> "You're lucky the Alpha spared your life."

Aria didn't answer.

> Her voice had died with Ryker's final words.

It had died when he let them tear the mark from her flesh.

When he didn't fight.

When he didn't care.

Step after step, her body gave more than it had.

The air thinned. Her ribs ached.

Black spots danced in the corners of her eyes, and her knees buckled.

> No one reached for her.

She hit the frozen ground hard-elbows scraping, breath exploding from her lungs.

Snow cushioned nothing. It only stole her warmth faster.

> "Not our problem anymore," one of them muttered.

Footsteps retreated.

They didn't even look back.

Alone.

Truly, utterly alone.

Blood pooled beneath her thigh-slow and steady from reopened wounds.

The frost drank it greedily. Her breath fogged the air in broken sobs.

She curled in on herself.

Arms over her stomach.

Chin tucked to her chest.

> "I didn't do it..." she whispered.

A truth no one had cared to hear.

And in the silence where her wolf had once growled-

Where instinct used to stir, where fury used to burn-

> There was nothing.

No voice.

No comfort.

No fire.

Until-

> A flicker.

Not loud. Not bright. But real.

Like a match struck in a cave of sorrow.

> A heartbeat of heat.

Golden. Ancient. Buried.

The Moon did not speak. The stars did not shift.

But something did.

> Something inside her.

Something old. Something waiting.

And slowly-

Delicately-

The snow began to melt beneath her trembling hand.

Kade Ashbourne moved like smoke-

silent, formless, but always watching.

From the moment she was dragged before the Council.

From the second Ryker turned away.

From the blow that broke her spirit to the one that dropped her to the snow.

He'd watched from the treeline.

A shadow with golden eyes.

A wolf who had already lost too much to stand by and lose again.

> He hadn't planned to interfere.

Not until her knees gave out.

Not until her blood painted the snow like an offering.

Not until the life inside her dimmed to a threadbare flicker.

Then he moved.

> Three strides.

One breath.

And he was beside her.

Kade dropped to one knee, the frozen ground groaning beneath his weight.

The wind curled around them like it knew this was no ordinary fall.

His gloved fingers pressed gently to her throat.

> Pulse.

Faint.

But there.

Her skin was ice beneath his touch.

Her ceremonial robe shredded. Her mark-gone.

> Torn from her.

As if love had never lived there. As if she was never claimed. Never real.

But Kade saw what the others had missed-

Not the absence, but the shimmer just beneath the wreckage.

> Not pack magic.

Not a blessed bond.

Something older. Wilder. Raw and unclaimed.

> Moonfire.

His jaw clenched. The forest watched.

The stars above blinked like they, too, held their breath.

With quiet strength, he slid one arm beneath her knees, the other cradling her shoulders.

She weighed almost nothing.

> Bones and bruises and broken hope.

She whimpered in his arms, barely conscious, the sound tearing through him more than any blade.

> "Hush," he whispered, voice low as dusk.

"I've got you now."

And he did.

He carried her through the wildwood-

past trees older than kingdoms, their bark split with runes and memory.

Past silent beasts whose eyes gleamed gold in the dark.

None challenged him.

> Some bowed.

The forest knew who he was.

And now-it would know her, too.

He crossed the threshold of rogue territory, moving with purpose and reverence.

> No one followed.

No one would dare.

He brought her where even fate stepped lightly.

To the hidden cliffside.

To the cabin wrapped in warding and firelight.

To the beginning of something written long before she bled on mountain stone.

He laid her on furs beside the hearth, every motion careful. Gentle.

The flames painted her skin in gold again-like she'd already begun to return.

Her breathing was shallow. But it was there.

She didn't know his name.

Not yet.

But when her lashes flickered... when her body curled slightly toward him in sleep...

> The flicker in her chest answered the echo in his.

And in that quiet moment-

with fire crackling and destiny shifting beneath the floorboards-

> Kade understood.

She wasn't broken.

> Not really.

Not yet.

And neither was he.