Page 5

I didn't run.

I probably should have. After everything that happened with Jace, the last thing I wanted was another bond, another boy looking at me like I was his before I even knew who I was again.

But this boy... this Alpha... didn't move like Jace.

He didn't smirk or shrink back.

He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Or a prayer.

"You're my mate," he said again, softer this time, like he didn't quite believe the words himself.

My chest tightened. "That's not possible."

"Why not?"

"Because I already-" I stopped. Swallowed the words. "It doesn't matter."

His eyes searched mine like he already knew. "You were rejected."

It wasn't a question. Just truth, spoken plainly.

I nodded once, barely.

He didn't flinch or pity me. He just let the moment hang between us, respectful, quiet.

Then he said, "You're safe now. My name is Kael."

Alpha Kael.

Crescent Fang's leader. I'd heard rumors back home-about the brutal way he took the title, the pack that feared him, the wars he ended.

And now he was saying I was his.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Come with me," he said.

I hesitated. "What if your pack doesn't accept me? I'm... no one. An outsider."

"You're my mate," Kael said simply. "That's enough."

?

The Crescent Fang village was carved into the cliffs and shadows of an ancient forest-half-hidden, half-wild. It wasn't neat like Ashmoon, or orderly. It was raw. Powerful. Real.

Wolves stopped to stare as we walked through, their eyes flicking between Kael and me. No one said anything, but I could feel the tension ripple through them like a low growl.

Kael didn't care. He led me straight to the packhouse-a dark stone building draped in moss and lantern light-and handed me a blanket, a clean change of clothes, and a room.

"I'll give you time," he said. "You've been hurt. You don't need to decide anything tonight."

I blinked at him. "You're not going to force the bond?"

"No," he said, eyes steady. "But I'm not rejecting it either."

And with that, he left.

Not demanding. Not controlling.

Just... patient.

It was the first time someone looked at me and didn't see what I was missing.

Only what I could become.

I curled up on the cot, my thoughts spinning in too many directions. My body was still aching, but not in the same way it had the night before.

Because somewhere deep in the part of me that still believed in the Moon Goddess, I felt it.

This wasn't the end of my story.

It was the beginning of something else.

Something stronger.