เข้าสู่ระบบRonan's POVThree days ago, I watched them take my mate in chains.Three days to gather every favor I was owed, every alliance I'd forged, every ounce of political capital I had accumulated in twenty years of leadership.Three days to raise an army."This is insane," Alpha Darius of Stonehaven Pack had said when I arrived at his border. "You're asking me to attack the Council. That's treason.""I'm asking you to stand against corruption," I had corrected. "Elder Varyn manipulated me into rejecting my true mate. He's been working with rogues, destabilizing packs, playing Alphas against each other for his own gain. Aria Blackwood isn't the threat, he is.""And you have proof?""I have his confession. Recorded by my Beta before we imprisoned him." I had played Garvin's hidden recording—Varyn admitting to decades of manipulation, gloating about how easy it had been to control me.Darius's eyes had gone cold. "If this is true...""Then the Council has been compromised. And they're about to
Ronan's POVI watched them take her into the darkness, every instinct screaming to fight, to kill, to tear apart anything between us.But Garvin's grip on my arm was iron, and his voice in my ear was desperate: "If you attack now, we all die. Including her. Is that what you want?"No. It wasn't.But letting her go felt like ripping out my own heart."Alpha." Marcus's voice was gentle. "We need to move. Before they change their minds about the deal."He was right. The Executioners were already melting back into the forest, following their prize. Soon we would be alone in the clearing with our dead and wounded."Gather our warriors," I ordered, my voice hollow. "Treat the injured. We're going home.""And then?" Garvin asked quietly.I looked toward where Aria had disappeared, the mate bond stretching thin and painful between us."And then we prepare for war."Three Days Later - Council HeadquartersAria’s PovThe chains were heavier now.I had been walking for three days straight, barel
Aria's POVI couldn't breathe.Not because of Raven's earlier grip on my throat, though the bruises there still throbbed but because of what I was witnessing.Ronan stood over Raven's broken form, his chest heaving, blood streaming from a dozen wounds. Behind him, his warriors were mopping up the last of the rogue resistance. We'd won. Against impossible odds, we'd actually won.But the look in Ronan's eyes when he turned to face me wasn't triumph.It was anguish."Aria." My name came out rough, barely more than a whisper. "I'm so sorry. For everything. For being too blind to see Varyn's manipulation, for the rejection, for not fighting harder to keep you. I was a coward who chose duty over you, and I will regret it for the rest of my life."I opened my mouth to respond, but Laura's scream cut through the night."ARIA! BEHIND YOU!"I spun just as a massive gray wolf launched from the shadows. Not one of Raven's rogues, this one wore the distinctive black and gold collar that marked Co
Ronan’s PovRaven’s territory reeked of blood and desperation.I moved through the shadows like a ghost, Garvin and twelve of my best warriors flanking me on either side. We had crossed into enemy lands an hour ago, using every stealth technique I'd learned in two decades of leadership to avoid detection.But stealth didn't matter now. Not when I could feel Aria's terror through the fractured mate bond, not when every instinct screamed that she was in danger.“Hold on,” I thought desperately. “Just hold on a little longer.”A howl split the night, high, desperate, unmistakably Nyra. Aria's wolf."There!" Garvin pointed toward the eastern cliffs. "That came from the ridge!"We broke into a run, abandoning caution for speed. The sounds of struggle grew louder as we approached, snarling, the crack of stone, Aria's voice raised in defiance.Then I heard him. Raven."You are MINE!"Kael erupted inside me, my wolf raging to be free. I'd kept him leashed during the months after Aria left, fo
Aria’s PovRelief flooded through me, warm and dizzying. He meant it. Whatever else I questioned about his motivations, this was real. He would protect me."Then we fight," Garrett said grimly."We can't win against twenty Executioners," Kian argued. "Even with our best warriors, we'd be slaughtered.""Then we don't fight fair." Raven's voice dropped, taking on that dangerous edge I had heard him use with enemies. He moved to the map, his fingers tracing lines across the territory. "We use the terrain, set traps, divide their forces and we use our greatest advantage."His eyes found mine again, and something in his gaze made my stomach clench."Aria's power," he continued, circling around the table toward me. "The Silver Fang power that the Council fears so much. They're coming for it, so let's give them a taste of what it can do.""I'm not a weapon," I said quietly."No." Raven stopped in front of me, his hand coming up to cup my cheek. The gesture would have looked tender to anyone
Aria’s Pov The war room fell silent as Raven spread the map across the table, his finger tracing the borders of what he called "the new territory." Around us, his top warriors leaned in, their expressions ranging from eager to skeptical. I stood at the edge of the group, trying to ignore the way my skin prickled with unease. "Three packs," Raven said, his voice carrying the weight of command that always made others listen. "Smaller territories, weakened leadership. If we strike in coordinated attacks, we can absorb them within a month." "Absorb," Garrett, his Beta, repeated carefully. "You mean conquer." "I mean unite." Raven's amber eyes flicked up, challenging anyone to contradict him. "These packs are dying. Their Alphas are weak, their borders crumbling. We'd be saving them, giving their wolves purpose and protection under stronger leadership." Under his leadership, he meant. Under the banner of the rogue army he'd been building for months. Under the symbol of the Sil







