CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8

ARIA’S POV

By the second night after our return from the ruins, the air in camp had shifted. Not in any obvious way, the fire still burned low in the pit, the same sentries kept watch at the same rotations but I could feel it in my skin, in the restless twitch of my wolf beneath the surface.

Eyes.

Someone was watching.

I told myself it was just the paranoia that came with reading my father’s words too many times. The journal hadn’t left my tent since we returned. I kept it wrapped in an old scarf at the bottom of my pack, but I could feel it there, humming with secrets, with danger.

Secrets Kaiden Blackthorn had kept from me.

The thought alone was enough to make my teeth ache.

Cera ducked into my tent, her hair damp from the river. “David wants to move camp further north by morning.” She said.

I glanced up from sharpening my blade. “Why?”

“Tracks near the southern ridge. Large ones.” She hesitated. “Too clean to be rogue.”

I stilled. “Patrol?”

She shrugged, but the look in her eyes told me she thought the same thing I did. Patrols didn’t stray this close to the borderlands unless they were sent.

And there was only one Alpha I could think of who had reason to send them.

The blade in my hand caught the light, silver gleaming for an instant before I set it aside. “Let him watch.” I said, trying to keep my voice even.

Cera frowned slightly. “You think it’s him?”

“I know it’s him.” The bond had been a dull throb in my chest all day, quiet but present, like a heartbeat you weren’t meant to hear. That kind of pull wasn’t distance. It was close.

She didn’t argue, but she also didn’t look convinced.

After she left, I reached for the journal. My father’s handwriting was still as steady on the last page as it had been on the first. That alone made my chest tighten, he’d written these knowing his life was about to end, and still his pen didn’t falter.

*The Blackthorn boy will stand at the crossroads. When he does, the Ashborne heir must be ready to lead him through the fire.*

My fingers tightened around the edges of the page until they bent. The “boy” he meant was no boy now. He was a man who had looked me in the eye under the Moon Goddess’s light and severed the bond without hesitation.

So why did the thought of him standing at any kind of crossroads make my stomach twist in something dangerously close to anticipation?

I shut the journal before my mind could wander further into places I didn’t want it to go.

Outside, the snow had stopped falling, leaving the forest brittle and silent. Every branch overhead glittered under the faint moonlight. I stepped away from the tent, letting the cold bite at my cheeks.

David was standing watch near the perimeter, his gaze scanning the treeline. “Thought you’d be sleeping.” He said without turning.

“Couldn’t.”

“You feel it too, then.”

I didn’t need to ask what he meant. The sensation was impossible to miss now— that prickle at the back of the neck, the faint hum of the bond vibrating under my skin.

He glanced at me finally. “If it’s him… you should know he hasn’t crossed the ridge yet.”

“That you know of.” I said.

“That I know of.” He allowed. “But, Aria… if he’s tracking us, he’s not here to kill you.”

The scoff left my throat before I could stop it. “You think rejection under the Moon Goddess’s gaze was an act of mercy?”

“I think.” David said carefully. “That men who mean to kill don’t follow this quietly. They strike.”

I didn’t answer him, because the truth in his words was an irritation I didn’t want to admit to. Kaiden Blackthorn had no problem killing when it suited him. If he wanted me dead, the snow under my feet would already be red.

Which meant he was here for something else.

That was almost worse.

By the time I crawled back into my tent, the cold had settled deep into my bones. I curled under my blanket, eyes on the shadows dancing across the canvas walls from the dying fire outside.

Sleep came in fragments. Flickers of half-formed dreams. The feel of strong hands around my wrists, not holding me down, but holding me steady. Golden eyes catching mine through smoke and darkness. A voice, low and rough, saying my name like it was both a warning and a promise.

I woke with my heart pounding and the taste of his scent in my mouth.

And I hated that I knew it as well as my own.

In the morning, we moved camp as planned. The air was brittle, the snow crunching loudly under every step. I took point with Alex while the others packed, scanning the treeline for movement.

We were halfway to the new site when the first sign appeared.

A wolf’s paw print in the snow, massive, fresh, and alone. Not from any in our party.

Alex crouched beside it, brushing away the loose powder. “Blackthorn.”

It wasn’t a guess.

The claw marks were too deep, the spread too wide. I’d seen his wolf before, just once, years ago, but the memory was enough to recognize the size.

“He’s following.” Alex said quietly.

I straightened, my breath fogging in the air. “Good. Let him.”

Alex gave me a long, searching look. “Careful, Aria. You’re playing with something you might not want to win.”

I met his gaze without flinching. “I don’t play.”

But as we moved on, I couldn’t stop the awareness thrumming through me, not fear, not exactly anticipation, but something rawer.

Something that told me Kaiden Blackthorn was closer than I wanted him to be.

And maybe closer than I could stand.