CHAPTER 58

Morning came gray and heavy, as if the sky itself carried the weight of the night before. Clouds rolled low across the horizon, swallowing the sun, and the rogue camp carried an uneasy quiet. No one spoke much, their whispers barely lifting above the damp mist that clung to the ground.

But inside Aria’s chest, there was no quiet. Only a storm.

She hadn’t slept. Not after Mira’s venom, not after the heavy silence that followed. Her head replayed every word, every smile that hid knives, every moment Kael’s hand had gripped hers beneath the table as though he feared letting go.

And now… now she couldn’t hold back anymore.

She found him where she always did when he didn’t want to be found, alone, at the edge of camp where the trees opened into shadow. His broad back was to her, his shoulders rigid, as though even the air around him was something he needed to fight.

“Kael.”

Her voice cut through the stillness. He didn’t turn.

Aria’s fists tightened at her sides. “Don’t do this. Don’t shut me out again.”

For a long heartbeat, the only answer was the rustle of leaves. Then, his voice came, low and frayed. “Go back, Aria.”

“No.” She moved closer, defiance threading her every step. “Not this time. You’ve carried pieces of this war on your shoulders long before I got here, but I won’t let you carry my father in silence too.” Her breath shook. “I need the truth. All of it.”

His shoulders tensed further, then finally, slowly, he turned.

The look in his eyes nearly undid her. Shadows carved into the gold, grief etched so deep it seemed older than his skin. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Yes, I do.” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t falter. “Dorian is my blood. Whatever sins he carries, they stain me too. And if I’m supposed to face prophecy, Kael, then I won’t do it blind.”

For a moment, he only stared at her, the fire in her words pulling against the walls he built. Then, as though surrendering to something inevitable, he let out a long, ragged breath.

“Fine,” he said. “You want the truth? Then listen.”

He sat heavily on a fallen log, elbows braced on his knees, head lowered. It wasn’t Kael the Alpha who sat there, it was Kael the man, stripped of power, holding nothing but memory and pain.

“I was thirteen,” he began, his voice raw. “Old enough to understand, too young to stop it. It was the Harvest Moon gathering. Packs came together for trade, feasting, alliances. My parents… they believed peace was possible.”

Aria’s chest tightened as she lowered herself onto the log opposite him, her hands twisting in her lap.

Kael’s jaw flexed. “Dorian made sure they never saw the dawn.”

The words were knives, each one cutting deeper.

“He came with smiles, with promises,” Kael continued, voice shaking with old fury. “He stood before the circle, my father beside him, and spoke of unity. And while they listened, while they trusted, his wolves moved. Quiet at first. Knives in the dark. Torches thrown into tents. Screams.”

Aria covered her mouth, bile rising as her imagination painted the scene.

Kael’s gaze lifted to her, and she wished it hadn’t. Pain lived there, sharp and endless. “I watched them burn, Aria. My parents, my kin. They were slaughtered like cattle, throats cut while they slept. And when I found my mother’s body…” His voice broke, and he had to look away. “Her eyes were still open. She died believing in his lie.”

Tears blurred Aria’s vision. Her nails dug into her palms so hard they left crescents. “Gods…” she whispered. “Kael…”

His hands curled into fists, knuckles white. “I swore that night I would kill him. I swore on their blood.” His voice hardened, steel over fire. “And then fate gave me the chance.”

Aria’s breath caught. “You… faced him?”

Kael nodded, eyes distant. “Years later. I hunted him down. Alone. Cornered him in the ruins of what used to be my home. He wasn’t Beta then, just a wolf with blood too thick on his hands to ever wash away.” His jaw clenched. “I had him, Aria. My blade at his throat.”

The air between them thickened, heavy with what he wasn’t saying.

“Why didn’t you?” Her voice trembled with accusation and fear all at once.

Finally, his gaze snapped to hers, sharp as a blade. “Because of her.”

Aria blinked. “My mother?”

Kael nodded once, slow, deliberate. His voice dropped, a confession pulled from the deepest wound. “She came to me. Out of the shadows, like a ghost I had no right to see. She begged me not to kill him.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “She said he was more than his sins. That blood didn’t have to breed blood.”

Aria’s breath stuttered. Her mother… had spared Dorian?

“I didn’t understand it then,” Kael went on, his voice heavy. “I thought maybe she saw something worth saving in him. Maybe she believed he could change. But me?” His eyes burned. “All I saw was weakness.”

Aria’s chest ached so badly she thought it might split. “Kael…”

He stood suddenly, pacing, like the memory clawed at him from the inside. “Do you know what it’s like to bury your parents, Aria? To dig with your bare hands because there’s no one left alive to help? To lay them in the dirt while the man who killed them still breathes?” He spun toward her, gold eyes blazing. “I could’ve ended it. I should have ended it. But she… your mother, looked at me with eyes so fierce, so full of faith, that I lowered the blade.”

Her tears spilled over, hot tracks down her face.

“And now,” Kael said, voice breaking, “I wonder if that was her final mistake.”

The words hit like a hammer. The air left Aria’s lungs.

Her mother’s mercy. Her father’s sins. Kael’s torment. It all spiraled together into a knot of fire inside her chest.

For a long moment, neither of them moved. The forest was silent, the camp a world away. Only Kael’s ragged breathing and Aria’s quiet sobs filled the space.

Then she whispered, her voice trembling like fragile glass. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Kael’s face twisted. “Because I wanted to protect you from it. From me. From all of it. But the truth doesn’t stay buried, does it?”

Aria shook her head, tears dripping from her chin. “No… it doesn’t.”

He reached for her then, hesitating, his hand hovering before finally brushing her cheek, rough thumb catching a tear. “I swore I’d never let his sins stain you. But they already have. And it’s killing me.”

Her body leaned into his touch despite the firestorm inside her. The bond throbbed, aching and alive, as though even fate couldn’t sever the pull between them.

Her lips parted, words tumbling before she could stop them. “Kael… if my mother begged for his life, maybe she saw something neither of us can yet. Maybe…”

“No.” His voice was sharp, cutting, but his hand lingered. His eyes were raw, torn wide open. “Mercy cost me everything. It cost her everything. And if fate circles back for you, Aria, I won’t show it again.”

Her heart slammed painfully, caught between fear and longing, grief and fire.

And in that suspended silence, Kael’s words echoed like a curse across both their souls.

“She begged me to let him live. And now I wonder if that was her final mistake.”