Chapter 11

The smoke still clung to my skin like a ghost. The explosion had ripped through the facility and left nothing but shuddering echoes and the bitter tang of metal in the air. I could still hear the faint crackle of collapsing steel and the soft hum of energy that hadn’t yet died. My hands trembled as I stared at them—scorched, trembling, alive. Too alive.

I had done this.

The realization burned deeper than the pain in my body. I didn’t know if the blood splattered across the floor belonged to Kael’s soldiers, to prisoners… or to the one person I had sworn I’d never hurt. The silence after power was worse than the blast itself. It was full of ghosts.

I forced myself to move. My legs were weak, but instinct screamed louder than grief. I stumbled through the twisted wreckage, ash falling like black snow around me. The world outside was fractured—sirens wailing, drones slicing through the night sky. The humans had noticed the chaos now. Their machines had eyes everywhere.

Something inside me had changed. My power used to hum beneath my skin like a caged storm, but now it pulsed with something colder, older. It wasn’t just mine anymore. It whispered when I breathed. It ached when I moved. It wanted out.

I pushed forward, following the faint thread of instinct that had always led me to survival. Each step took me deeper into the outskirts—broken streets where the city bled into shadow. My reflection caught in the shattered glass of a storefront: eyes glowing faintly, silver like moonlight cutting through storm clouds. Not human. Not wolf. Something in between.

And then I heard it.

A voice. Not through the air—but in my head.

*Aria.*

It was faint, like a memory trying to surface through static. My heart clenched. Auren. His voice was cracked with distance, but it was *his*. My pulse thundered. I closed my eyes and reached out to the thread of his presence. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone—cut off like a wire snapping under strain.

The sound of engines roared behind me. I ducked into an alley, my lungs burning as red lights swept across the brick walls. Kael’s hunters. They moved with precision, like wolves wearing human skins. I could hear their comms whispering, their boots crunching glass. My instincts screamed to run—but the power beneath my skin pulsed like a heartbeat that wasn’t mine.

When I exhaled, the streetlight nearest to me exploded.

Sparks cascaded down like fireflies, lighting the alley in molten gold. The soldiers turned, shouting orders, but I was already gone. My body moved on reflex, each muscle answering to something primal. I darted across rooftops, feeling the pulse of the city beneath me. The wind carried the scent of rain and gunpowder.

But for every step I took away from Kael, I could feel his shadow still clinging to me.

By the time dawn broke, the horizon was bruised violet. I collapsed beneath an overpass, my chest heaving. My reflection in a puddle was barely recognizable—blood, dirt, and faint streaks of luminous light threading through my veins. The world outside the packs was crueler than I remembered. Human soldiers patrolled the streets now, their armor gleaming with tech designed to hunt creatures like me.

It wasn’t just Kael anymore. The humans had joined the hunt.

I curled my arms around myself, the cold seeping in. Every breath hurt. Every thought screamed of Auren’s voice fading away. I couldn’t tell if I had lost him forever or if he was somewhere out there, just out of reach. The thought haunted me more than the soldiers.

A low hum broke through the morning. I stiffened, ready to run, but it wasn’t a drone this time. It was a heartbeat—slow, steady, familiar. My pulse quickened. I turned.

And froze.

The figure emerging from the fog wore dark tactical gear, his face half-shadowed by the rising sun. His scent hit me first—burnt cedar and wild rain. My heart skipped.

“Aria,” he said softly. His voice was both familiar and foreign. I took a step closer, trembling.

“Elias?” My voice cracked. I hadn’t spoken that name in years.

He smiled faintly. “You remember.”

I did. I remembered the boy who had once promised to protect me when we were children in the outer pack. The one who had disappeared the night Kael’s men came for us. The one I had buried in my nightmares a long time ago.

But now he was here. Alive. Breathing. And on his neck, just above his collarbone, burned Kael’s mark.

My stomach twisted. “What did he do to you?”

He didn’t answer. He just looked at me with eyes I no longer recognized—cold, resolute, broken. “You shouldn’t have run, Aria. You were meant to lead us.”

Before I could move, he lifted his hand—and the air around me shimmered. A force slammed into my chest, hurling me backward. My head hit concrete, stars bursting behind my eyes. I tasted blood.

Elias stepped forward, his expression unreadable. “Kael was right,” he murmured. “You don’t understand what you are yet. But you will.”

The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was the glow of his eyes—silver, like mine—staring down at me through the rising dawn.

And then everything went black.