3

Aria

The air stills.

It’s as though the entire festival grinds to a halt, sound bleeding away, leaving only the thunder of my heartbeat.

Kaelion stares up at him with wide gray eyes, my hand slipping uselessly from his. The boy tilts his head—so innocent, so curious—and I know. I know without a doubt what Kaelen sees, what every pair of sharp wolf eyes in this crowd will see if they look too closely.

The same storm-gray eyes. The same high cheekbones. The same stubborn jawline, carved as though the Moon Goddess wanted to laugh at me for believing I could hide him forever.

No. No, no, no.

“Kaelion,” I hiss, crouching to snatch his small hand back into mine. My voice is thin, desperate. “Stay close.”

But Kaelen doesn’t move. His massive frame blocks the festival path like a wall of muscle and rage barely contained. His icy blue eyes lock onto mine, then drop again to the boy. His nostrils flare. His jaw clenches.

It’s as if the world itself holds its breath.

“You.” The single word scrapes out of him like broken glass.

My stomach caves in. The weight of his voice drags me years back—to that night, his rejection, his hand tearing the mate bond from me while I bled in the mud. To the way he looked at me as though I was filth beneath his boot.

I want to run. Every cell in my body screams at me to grab my son and disappear into the forest. But my legs won’t obey. My son is staring up at him with too much trust. My wolf is trembling under the force of her old Alpha’s command.

Kaelen steps forward. One slow, lethal stride.

“Whose child,” he asks, voice low and dangerous, “is this?”

---

Kaelen

I can’t breathe.

The second I saw the boy, the ground ripped out from under me. Those eyes. Those storm-gray eyes. My father’s eyes. My eyes.

The goddess is cruel. She has to be. Because there’s no way fate would shove this in my face unless it wanted me torn apart.

The boy looks at me like he knows me. Not fear—not even awe—but something eerily familiar. My chest twists painfully, a knot of rage and confusion.

And Aria—gods, Aria. She’s here. The traitor. The woman who shattered everything when I needed her most. Her auburn hair gleams beneath the moonlight just as it used to, though her face is sharper, older. Harder. She looks at me like I’m the executioner who came to finish the job.

But my wolf doesn’t care. He surges forward inside me, snarling with recognition, howling with the old bond he supposedly ripped out. Mate. Ours. Pup.

I grit my teeth so hard my jaw aches. No. I will not be fooled again.

“Answer me.” My voice cracks like thunder. “Whose. Child. Is. This.”

Her hand tightens around the boy’s, protective, desperate. She lifts her chin, eyes burning, and for a heartbeat I see the old Aria—the girl who used to fight me with that fire in her gaze, the one I…

No. I slam the thought down.

“Mine,” she whispers finally, so low I almost miss it.

The crowd murmurs. I hear it ripple through the festival like wildfire. His child. His heir. Aria’s back.

And suddenly I can’t stop staring at the boy again. Every detail is a knife. The set of his mouth. The curve of his brow. The wolf inside me is howling, clawing, demanding to claim him.

My son.

But the rage burns hotter, choking. She hid him. She left with him. She stole four years from me.

---

Aria

I want the ground to swallow me whole.

The whispers are already spreading, too fast, too loud. Faces turn. Some in shock. Some in accusation. Some in thinly veiled hunger at the thought of a new heir who could upset every delicate line of succession.

Kaelen’s eyes are locked on me like twin blades. If looks could kill, I’d be bleeding out already.

I shake my head furiously, dragging Kaelion closer into my chest. “You don’t get to ask me that. You don’t get to—”

“He looks exactly like me,” Kaelen growls, stepping closer, towering over me. His scent—pine, steel, and storm—is everywhere, suffocating. “Don’t you dare lie to me, Aria.”

“Lie?” My voice shreds in my throat. “What do you care? You made your choice years ago. You cut me out like I was nothing. And you expect me to crawl back and—what? Hand him over to you? Never.”

His jaw ticks. His fists clench. For a moment I swear he’s going to shift right here in front of the entire pack.

Kaelion peeks around my arm, blinking up at him with a strange, quiet fascination. “Mum,” he says softly, tugging my sleeve. “He looks like me.”

My heart shatters.

Kaelen hears it too. His entire body flinches, his expression cracking for just a breath before the mask slams back into place.

The crowd presses closer. Someone whispers, “The Alpha’s heir…” Another mutters, “The prophecy…”

Oh no. Not here. Not now.

“Stay away from us,” I snap, voice shaking but loud enough to cut through the whispers. My wolf bristles inside me, ready to shield Kaelion even against our old Alpha. “You lost that right when you rejected me. You don’t own me. And you don’t own him.”

---

Kaelen

Her words hit harder than claws.

Rejected me. As though I was the one who betrayed her. As though she wasn’t the one who destroyed everything.

The fury roars back, hot and blinding, but it’s tangled now with something else, something sharper and more dangerous. The sight of her clutching that boy to her chest like I’m the threat. The way the boy’s small voice tugged at something primal inside me.

I can’t think. I can barely breathe. All I know is this:

She hid him.

She lied.

And I will not lose again.

I step closer, lowering my voice to a snarl only she can hear. “Try to run, Aria. I dare you. But you won’t make it past the border this time.”

Her eyes widen, her grip on the boy tightening. I can smell her fear, sharp and bitter.

Good. She should be afraid.

Because the truth is already searing itself into me, undeniable as the moon.

This is my son. My heir.

And nothing—no betrayal, no lie, no distance—is going to keep him from me now.

I straighten, lifting my head to the crowd, my voice booming across the square. “This child is mine.” The gasps echo like a storm. “My blood. My heir. And no one takes what’s mine.”

---

Aria

The words slam into me like a death sentence.

Kaelion presses into my side, confused, frightened by the crowd’s reaction, by the sudden weight of every eye upon us.

And me? My entire body shakes with fury and terror. Because I know what those words mean.

It doesn’t matter that he rejected me. It doesn’t matter that I swore I’d never let him touch me again.

He’s claiming my son.

And Kaelen Draven has never lost what he sets his eyes on.

The prophecy’s shadow looms closer with every heartbeat.

And I realize, with a hollow ache in my chest—

I may have just lost everything.