Chapter 6

Aria

Wherever they were dragging me to, I wasn’t leaving without a fight.

“Bring my sister out! I want to see my sister! Where is she? What have you done to her?” I screamed, my voice splitting through the air. My throat burned from the force of my own words, but I didn’t care.

I was exhausted, my muscles aching, but the fear? The fear that they had done something to Whitney kept me on edge, kept my heart slamming against my ribs like a war drum.

The sky had started to shift, dark giving way to a silver glow. The moon was creeping up, and the second it came into full view, the air changed. I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

A chorus of howls echoed from the distance, the pull inside me twisting like a storm. The guards gripping my arms tensed, their bodies shaking, and before any of us could stop it, the shift came.

Bones snapped, fur sprouted, and a growl tore out of my throat as I hit the ground on all fours. The moon, that powerful moon, called us, and we answered.

I howled, pouring every ounce of pain and frustration into it, my voice carrying across the night.

I cried when I heard what happened to my parents but that was it. I couldn't let myself break, when Whitney was taken I’d bottled it all up, buried it deep, because I couldn’t afford to be weak. But now? Now I let go.

For a few moments, the world was just howling and the wind whipped through my fur. But all too soon, the noise died, the pull eased, and one by one, we shifted back.

I was still burning, still shaking from the inside. Letting out the frustration didn’t make it disappear—it only made me more determined.

“I am not going anywhere without my sister!” I snarled, struggling against their grip.

The guards yanked me forward, but I was dead weight, forcing them to drag me. I wasn’t making it easy. Not a chance.

Then a voice cut through the night.

“Who the hell is making such a fuss and disturbing my sleep?”

Everything stilled. My breath hitched, and my body froze.

That voice, it sounded pretty familiar. A shiver ran through me, but not from fear. Where have I heard that voice before?

Then it hit me—the scent.

A mixture of leather, forest, and cherry.

It was the most intoxicating scent I had ever perceived.

It slammed into my senses, wrapping around me like a vice, sending a pulse of something hot and electric through my veins. My lungs dragged in more, desperate to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. I sniffled the air more, it flooded my insides, I almost doubted it, but it was real.

“Mate.”

The voice groaned in my head.

What? What was that?

“Mate,” my wolf purred, practically vibrating inside me.

Mate? No. No way.

I turned, my body moving on instinct, tracing the scent, my heart hammering so hard it was going to burst.

The moonlight spilled over his figure, illuminating sharp features, our eyes locked, his piercing eyes.

It was him.

My stomach plummeted, and my world tilted on its axis.

The stranger.

The man I met every Tuesday by the stream. The one I talked to, laughed with. The one I thought was just someone from one of our allies pack. What was he always doing there? The journey from my pack to Black Glow Pack was quite far unless they took the trees.

But above all… he was my mate?

And he was from the Black Glow Pack?

“Alpha, we have a little problem, but we’ll have her thrown out immediately,” one of the guards announced, bowing to the man standing several feet away.

My breath came short.

Alpha?

Did I hear that right?

My mate was the Alpha of the Black Glow Pack?

The same pack that murdered my parents and took Whitney?

“Hahaha” A laugh tore out of my throat, sharp and bitter. The moon goddess must be playing with me.

The guards shifted uncomfortably, watching me like I’d lost my mind.

Well, maybe I had.

“You sure she’s not a mad woman?” one of them muttered. They stared at me.

I twisted out of their grip so fast they didn’t see it coming.

My body moved in pure rage, my bones snapping as I shifted mid-air. I lunged at him, my fangs aiming straight for his throat.

But he was faster.

Too fast.

He shifted in an instant, his massive frame slamming into mine, knocking me out of the air and onto the ground so hard my breath left me in a harsh wheeze.

Pain exploded through my ribs, but I didn’t stop.

I scrambled up, my wolf snarling, but before I could attack again, he was on me.

His big claws, sharp and piercing, dug into my skin, pinning me, pressing me into the dirt, making me wince.

I thrashed, trying to get out from under him, but he pressed down harder, his growl vibrating through me.

“Stay. Fucking. Down.” His voice was a low, lethal snarl, but I didn’t care.

I snapped my fangs at his face, barely missing his muzzle.

He growled louder, his claws digging in deeper, making my skin burn.

“You monster!” I spat, my voice raw. “Where is my sister?!”

He didn’t answer, just loomed over me, his sharp piercing eyes burning through mine.

“You—” I tried to shove him off, but he pressed me down again, his breath hot against my face.

My entire body tensed. He was the Alpha of this place.

He was staring at me, his expression unreadable, but I could see it. The confusion. The hesitation.

My throat tightened. My hands curled into fists. I was angry. There was no way I was accepting this.

I took a shaky breath, forcing steel into my voice. “Let go of my sister, you monster.”

The Alpha’s gaze flickered, his brows drawing together slightly.

I yanked at the grip holding me. “Bring my sister out or I’ll fight you myself!”

I was breathing too fast. My chest was too tight. The weight of his stare crushed down on me, suffocating.

But he said nothing. Not a single word.

Instead, he grinned—a cocky, arrogant smile played on his lips like I was a joke.