LOGINAdrian placed the repaired moonstone bracelet inside my coffin. A jeweler had joined the broken pieces with gold, but the stone would never be whole again. Mother’s scent had been erased by tires and rain.So had everything between Adrian and me.Some things couldn’t be fixed after they were destroyed.When the funeral ended, Adrian stayed beside my grave until nightfall, clutching my old phone.“Aria, Serena is gone. The Council will punish her, and I’ll accept whatever they do to me.”He waited after every sentence as if I might answer.“I restored your name. No one will ever call you rogue again.”Only the white oak whispered above him.He bowed his head. “You used to send me so many messages. Why didn’t you say one more thing at the end?”I stood beside Mother’s headstone and watched him quietly.I had said plenty: I wrote the protocol; I was sick; I couldn’t afford treatment; my wolf was looking for him; and I couldn’t hold on much longer.He had chosen not to hear any of it. My s
The Royal Pack Council opened an investigation within hours. They reviewed the original banishment order, Adrian’s employment restrictions, the PackAid report, and Serena’s fabricated evidence in the Academy plagiarism case.Serena insisted that I had chosen my fate.“Aria refused to come home. Adrian gave her a way back.”An elder looked at her coldly. “Forcing a wolf to confess to a crime she didn’t commit before returning her shelter, medical care, and identity is not a way back. It is coercion.”Under Alpha command, Serena confessed to everything. She had copied my silver-purification protocol, forged the draft and recording that framed me for plagiarism, cropped the security footage, reinforced Adrian’s suspicions for three years, encouraged the Pack to call her the Alpha’s sister, accused me of fraud on PackAid, and deliberately crushed my mother’s bracelet.She hadn’t pushed me from the bridge.She had simply stripped pieces from my life until nothing remained.The Council revok
Adrian led the patrol to my shack first.The door was unlocked. The room looked as though nobody had ever truly lived there. A few empty medicine bottles sat beside the bed. My faded coat hung from a nail, and a Moonrest price sheet lay on the table.I had circled the cheapest plot again and again.Beside it, I’d written:[No Pack. No ceremony. Maybe they’ll lower the price.]Adrian stared at the words until tears fell from his face. He touched the thin blanket on my bed and flinched at how cold it was. In the cupboard, he found half a loaf of stale bread and a jar of painkillers with someone else’s name scratched off the label. The Alpha who controlled hundreds of homes finally saw where his sister had been sleeping, and there was nothing in the room he could blame on pride or performance.In the drawer, he found an unsigned note about my belongings. I had no family willing to inherit anything. My only request was that the moonstone bracelet be returned to Mother’s grave.Now even tha
[I have two new pain injections. No charge. Tell me where you are.]I never replied. At the time, I’d been standing in the dining room, watching the last piece of my mother shatter beneath Serena’s tires.A tear struck the phone screen before Adrian opened our conversation.Although he had blocked me, my phone retained every message marked undelivered.During the first year, I wrote constantly.[Adrian, I wrote the silver-purification protocol. The Academy server has every draft. When Ms. Shaw returns, she can prove it.][It’s freezing tonight. Are you really not going to let me come home?][I waited at the territory line until sunrise. My wolf kept calling for you.][Today is the anniversary of Mom’s death. I can’t enter the cemetery. Will you leave white flowers for me?]The second year, the messages became less frequent.[I have early-stage Silver Lung. The healer says it’s still treatable.][I saw the car you gave Serena today. It was my birthday.][I don’t want the car. I just nee
Adrian advanced on her, gold bleeding into his eyes. “You told me Aria stole your protocol. You showed me a backdated draft, a recording, and security footage. You said she threatened to strip your Blackwood protection unless you signed the work over.”His voice roughened with every sentence. “I revoked her nomination. I sealed the Pack mindlink. I drove her off our territory.”He stopped in front of Serena. “You lied to me for three years?”Tears spilled down her face. “I was scared of losing you.”“Answer me.”The Alpha command hit like a physical blow. Serena’s knees slammed onto the floor.“Yes,” she gasped. “I copied her protocol. I forged the draft and the recording, and I cropped the footage.”Adrian swayed as if she’d struck him.“Why?”Serena remained on her knees, but the helpless mask she’d worn for years began to crack. “Because no matter what I did, she was always the one who mattered most.”“I survived the hardest training and nearly topped the Academy exam, but you alway
The woman paused. “You’re not Aria?”His fingers tightened around the phone, and for the first time, his voice shook.“What grave?”Then, even more quietly, “Who has Silver Lung?”The line went silent for several seconds.“Aria Blackwood,” the woman finally said. “Are you family?”Adrian didn’t answer. His eyes moved slowly to Serena.She reacted first and reached for the phone. “It’s another scam. Aria forged the medical records on PackAid, and now she has someone pretending to work at a cemetery.”Adrian stepped out of reach. “When did she first contact you?”“Almost a year ago. She visited several times and kept asking about the cheapest rogue plot. Every time I requested a deposit, she said she needed the money for medicine.”“A rogue plot?”“She had no Pack acceptance certificate, so she couldn’t be buried in a family cemetery. The public section was her only option.” The woman’s voice turned cautious. “Yesterday, she said she would pay with the PackAid withdrawal. When the transf







