TOO FAT TO BE LUNA

ARIA’S POV I ran through the pack grounds, past the training fields where warriors stopped mid-drill to stare. Past the gardens where I used to play as a child when my parents were alive and the world made sense. I ran until I reached the edge of pack territory, where the forest grew dark and thick, and collapsed against a tree. Finally, I let the tears fall. Great, ugly sobs tore from my throat as I pressed my hands against my chest, trying to hold together the pieces of my shattered heart. My wolf howled inside me, mourning the mate we’d lost before we ever really had him. “I hate you,” I whispered to the Moon Goddess, tilting my face toward the sky. “I hate you for making me like this.” The moon stared back, silent and uncaring. I don’t know how long I sat there—minutes, hours—but eventually, the tears dried up. Eventually, I had nothing left to cry. My body ached from the broken mate bond. It felt like someone had taken a hot iron and pressed it against my ribs, burning f

KAEL’S POVI smelled her before I saw her.Blood. Fear. And something else—something that made my Lycan surge forward so violently I almost shifted right there.Mate.The word echoed through my mind like a gunshot.No. Impossible.I’d already had a mate. Sera had died five years ago, and second chance mates were rare. The Moon Goddess didn’t hand them out like party favors.But my Lycan didn’t care about logic or probability.MATE, he roared. OURS. FIND HER.I was running before I consciously decided to move.My territory stretched for miles—dense forest, steep ravines, and enough warning signs to keep out anyone with half a brain. Trespassers were dealt with swiftly and without mercy.That was the reputation I’d built. The reputation that kept my pack safe.But this trespasser… this one was different.I found her at the bottom of a ravine, crumpled against the rocks like a broken doll.Female. Early twenties. Curvy build, chestnut hair matted with blood, wearing a torn gray servant’s

ARIA’S POV I’d never been in a room this beautiful. The medical wing of Kael’s mansion looked more like a luxury spa than a hospital. Soft lighting, comfortable furniture, walls painted in soothing cream tones. Even the examination table was padded with something that felt like clouds. So different from the pack clinic at Crescent Moon, where I’d been treated like an inconvenience every time I needed medical care. Dr. Sarah Chen moved around me with quiet efficiency, her dark eyes sharp and assessing. She was older than I’d first thought—maybe early fifties—with the kind of competence that came from decades of experience. “Deep breath,” she instructed, pressing a stethoscope to my back. I obeyed, trying not to wince. Everything still hurt from the fall down the ravine. My ribs were taped, my wrist wrapped, bruises mottling my skin in shades of purple and yellow. But I was alive. That was more than I’d expected three days ago. Kael stood near the window, arms crosse

ARIA’S POV Sleep wouldn’t come. I lay in the luxurious guest room Kael had given me—silk sheets, down pillows, a mattress so comfortable it felt like sleeping on clouds—and stared at the ceiling. A year. Maybe two. That’s all I had left. The curse was killing me slowly, and breaking it might kill me instantly. Either way, death was waiting. I’d escaped Derek only to discover I was dying anyway. The cruelty of it made me want to scream. Instead, I threw back the covers and padded to the window. The moon was full tonight, casting silver light across Kael’s territory. Beautiful and peaceful—everything Crescent Moon had never been. Movement on the balcony below caught my eye. Kael stood alone, hands braced on the railing, staring up at the moon. Even from here, I could see the tension in his shoulders, the weight he carried. The mate bond tugged at me, urging me toward him. I pulled on a robe and slipped out of my room. The mansion was quiet—most pack members asl

VIVIAN’S POV The scrying crystal shattered in my hands. “NO!” I shrieked, hurling the pieces across my ritual room. They embedded in the walls, glittering like deadly diamonds. The shadow wolves—six of my most powerful creations—destroyed. Not just defeated. Obliterated. Burned away by pure white light so intense it had burned through my magical connection to them. Royal Wolf light. The girl had accessed her power. Even with the curse still active, even this early in her awakening, Aria Winters had tapped into the Royal bloodline’s strength. “Impossible!” I screamed at the empty room. “The curse should have held for months! Years!” But it hadn’t. The Lycan’s mate bond was too strong, too pure. It was breaking down my carefully constructed curse faster than I’d anticipated. I’d underestimated them. Both of them. I grabbed her altar, flipping it over with a howl of rage. Candles scattered, spell components spilling across the floor. I kicked over shelves, shattered jar