CHAPTER 2

“Aria!” My mother’s sobs came through the phone, sharp and piercing. “They dragged your father away. The Gammas said he defied the Council’s orders. Please....come home. Hurry!”

My heart pounded. The world spun, panic rising in my throat like bile.

“I’m coming,” I choked, already struggling out of Damian’s iron grip.

But his hand tightened around my wrist like a shackle. His gray eyes burned into me, unyielding, unrelenting.

“You’re not leaving.” His voice was low, dangerous, the kind of tone that brooked no defiance.

"Not when I'm in such a state." 

He glanced down, and I followed his gaze to see the outline of his hard-on straining against his trousers, threatening to break free. God, that must be huge.

I yanked against his hold. “My father, he could be killed! I don’t have time for this.”

The corners of his mouth curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Time? That’s what you don’t understand, sweetheart. When the Council marks someone, time is already gone.”

The bluntness of his words cut through me. Rage and fear twisted inside my chest. “Then let me go! I can’t just stand here while they—”

His hand slid to my chin, forcing me to look up at him. Heat surged through me at the contact, even as I trembled with fury.

“You think running out there in torn silk and desperation will save him?” His eyes narrowed, voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “You’ll be eaten alive before you even leave this building.”

My breath caught. His words made too much sense, but my heart was in chaos. I shoved at him anyway, voice breaking. “You don’t know my father. He doesn’t deserve this.”

Damian studied me for a long, unbearable moment. Then, as if making some silent decision, his grip softened. His thumb brushed my jaw in a way that contradicted every ounce of his ruthlessness.

“Your father’s life isn’t my concern,” he said at last. “But you… you’ve made yourself mine tonight.”

The way he said it, possessive, final, sent a shiver down my spine. I hated the fact that part of me wanted it.

“Let me go,” I whispered again, but weaker this time.

Instead, his lips ghosted against my ear, making my knees threaten to give way. “I’ll help you, Aria. But help from me always comes with a price.”

A dangerous promise. My stomach twisted as I met his eyes. “What price?”

He smirked, slow and wicked. Darkness in his eyes. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Before I could respond, he finally released me. The absence of his touch was as dizzying as the heat of it.

“Go,” he said, stepping back into shadow like a king dismissing his subject. “But when the Council takes, they don’t return. Remember that.”

I didn’t waste another second. I tore from the suite, heels echoing against marble, heart in my throat.

By the time I reached my pack’s territory, the night was in chaos. Wolves gathered in hushed, frightened clusters. My mother sobbed on the porch, surrounded by neighbors whispering of treason, of execution.

“Where is he?” I gasped, rushing to her side.

“They took him to the Council chambers,” she wept. “Said he resisted their decree. Said he was hiding something....”

Her words cut off as movement stirred from the shadows.

Ethan.

My fated mate, the one who shattered me only hours ago, stepped into the light with a face I barely recognized. Grim, cold, dangerous.

“Aria,” he said, voice steady. “We need to talk. Now.”

My stomach dropped.

I saw the seriousness on his face and realized I couldn’t refuse, because whatever he was going to say was relevant to the current situation.

The night air stank of fear and smoke. Wolves whispered in shadows, mothers clutched their pups tighter, and every gaze on me burned with pity or suspicion.

But none of it mattered, not when Ethan Hale stepped into the porch light, looking like a man I didn’t recognize.

My mate. My betrayer.

He should’ve been the boy I once knew, the one who promised me forever under the blood moon. Instead, he looked like a stranger wearing Ethan’s skin. His jaw was set, eyes hard, his entire aura colder, darker.

He got closer to me.

“Aria,” he said once again, voice low but steady this time.

“We need to talk. Alone."