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Chapter 44

Author: Melanin Bella
last update publish date: 2026-01-10 07:20:41

**ARIA'S POV**

I woke to darkness and the smell of damp stone.

My head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache that made thinking feel like wading through thick mud. My wrists burned from rope that one of them had tied around them, tight enough that the fibers bit into skin with every small movement.

For a moment I couldn't remember where I was or how I'd gotten here.

Then memory crashed back in fragments that felt too sharp, too real.

The forest. Caelan shifting into that massive wolf with golde
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    **ARIA'S POV** I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to push everything that just happened out of my head. The heat that flooded my body, the way sounds slipped from my lips without permission. I hated him. Eventually, I forced myself up, my legs trembling so badly I had to grip the edg

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