Page 31

ARIA

T he world descended into chaos around me, but I couldn’t rip my eyes away from the ghost in front of me. My mate.

My very un- dead mate.

For a moment, I didn’t believe my eyes. Too many times over the past few months, my mind played cruel tricks on me. It conjured images and scents and sounds that played on my grief and tortured me.

And yet, with every passing second, Malik remained.

He stalked forward. Lean muscles rippled beneath a grey and red-tinged coat. He’d lost weight but still towered over every other wolf in the clearing. His eye flared wild, his jowls curled back over impossibly long, sharp teeth.

I saw no trace of the man within the beast.

“M-Malik?” I whispered, my lips trembling and stumbling over his name.

No answer.

I turned inward, seeking him out within our mate bond, but I only met an indiscernible cacophony of agony and pain and betrayal. It pierced through me with renewed vigor, growing more and more crippling with every prowled step closer.

But I felt him. He was alive. And that meant everything.

I scrambled to my feet, dirt clinging to my hands and dress. I needed to get to him. Needed to confirm that this was real—that he was here and alive and mine. Needed to introduce him to his daughter.

My first steps forward were shaky, my knees wobbling and body numb from shock.

“ Malik! ” I screamed above the clamor around me, shoving past a broad-shouldered guard.

I hadn’t noticed the uproar in the crowd. Several Intonat Nocte guards crowded around Roman and, consequently, me, but an air of unease hung over the clearing. In fact, most of the pack took slow, careful steps away from their alpha. Away from the center of the clearing. Away from Malik.

“ No…” Roman whispered from somewhere behind me. Disbelief coated every word. “No, it isn’t possible.”

Malik! I cried into our bond, pushing another Intonat Nocte wolf out of my way. Malik, I’m here. Please!

My mate’s massive head swung in my direction, his nostrils flaring.

For the fraction of a second, the fury coursing through our bond—pouring from his body into my own—fractured to allow a brush of devotion to caress me.

That brief reprieve filled my lungs with renewed hope, and I started to run forward.

I didn’t make it far.

A pair of hands clamped down on my shoulders— hard— yanking my body back to the center of the clearing and the protective circle the Intonat Nocte guards had formed around Roman.

“No!” I seethed, fighting against the strong arms corralling me. “Let me go to him. Now. ”

The guards paid me no mind, their attention solely focused on Malik’s approaching figure.

For the first time, I realized that the wolves from Alpha Amir’s pack now flanked Malik. They filled the space behind him, nipping at any enemy that dared step too close to him. Even Alpha Amir watched Malik approach with something like smug satisfaction glimmering in his dark eyes.

“There is only one alpha” Amir croaked, a smirk playing on his thin lips as he turned his gaze back to Roman. “That my pack means to swear fealty to. And it is not you. ”

“What the fuck is happening?” Roman trembled with barely suppressed rage. “Kill him! Kill them all!”

He pointed at Malik, who was close enough now that I noted several gruesome scars stretching across his wolf’s flanks and chest. Patches of fur were missing where the skin turned into a mangled miss.

And, despite Roman’s shouted orders, the Intonat Nocte warriors hesitated. Their general had seemingly returned from the dead, and vengeance rolled off him in oppressive waves. Sheer self-preservation kept Roman’s own warriors from moving.

Roman’s head swiveled, his eyes widening in fear. I saw the moment he realized that his warriors hadn’t moved. Some even slinked away, their bellies lowered to the ground in a show of subservience to Malik.

Pride flared in my chest, and I grappled with the guard that held me. This time, he released me, and a smile split my face.

Malik, I’m coming. I love you and ? —

The cold touch of metal through the fabric of my dress caused my words to falter. I recognized the bite of steel, pressing dangerously against the swell of my stomach. Right above where I’d felt my daughter move just moments ago. A knife.

I froze .

“Take one more step, brother, and I’ll spill her guts where we stand,” Roman seethed, his breath hot and wet against my ear. “I’ll cut your pup out and hand-deliver it to you.”

He pressed the knife harder against the lower portion of my belly, where the curve of my swollen stomach met my hip, and I cried out at the pinch of the blade against my skin. It sliced through my dress, digging relentlessly into skin. Just the flick of his wrist would cut me open.

Malik stopped, the muscles beneath his peppered coat vibrating with an inaudible growl. His eyes, once brimming with unrestrained violence, now solely watched the knife in his brother’s hand, and a flash of fear struck down our bond.

I didn’t move—didn’t dare to even breathe.

Silent tears poured from my eyes, but I fought to keep my shoulders from shaking with the sobs that threatened to rack through me.

As if sensing my distress, the pup—the one shred of hope and joy in my life over the last several months—wiggled inside my womb.

Then, I heard it.

The most beautiful, terrifying sound. Malik’s voice, filling my mind, in a low, raspy snarl. Let her go.

Every shifter—human and wolf alike—tensed throughout the clearing. His voice must’ve penetrated every mind, carrying the unmistakable authority of an alpha. The rightful alpha.

Roman’s lips pulled back over his teeth, and he laughed, cruel and raucous. “So you can kill me? I don’t fucking think so, monster. ”

I’m issuing a formal challenge for the Intonat Nocte Pack, Malik warned, risking a single, small step closer. You must face me. Your fight is with me, not Aria.

At my back, Roman stiffened. Like a coward, he shook his head and laughed again, though unease slipped into the sound. I will not fight you. You’re no alpha. You’re nothing .

“Guards!” Roman shouted, his voice an octave higher than normal. “Kill this male! Kill every outsider. Now!”

I held my breath. Again, no one moved.

In fact, some Intonat Nocte members turned their glares and snarls on Roman. To refuse a formal challenge was treasonous to the very laws that bound our kind. It went against every rule, every sacred tradition. Not to mention, it betrayed Roman’s rotten soul. His cowardice.

His unworthiness.

Release her, Malik demanded again, the words echoing like thunder between my ears.

Roman’s hand shook, the blade digging into my stomach as his control wavered. No.

Malik’s responding snarl earned a handful of whimpers from wolves throughout the clearing. Their natural instincts warned them to obey and serve the strongest among them. At last, they realized that was not Roman.

Something warm dripped down my abdomen, trickling down my thighs and staining my dress. Roman cut me. The wound wasn’t deep. Not yet.

Still, Malik stopped his slow ascent. Wild fear ran rampant in his gaze.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Roman warned, his breathing ragged and shallow. “Sweet Aria and I are going to go for a walk. A long walk. No one will follow us.”

Snarls and growls of discontent flooded the clearing, but Roman continued.

“You all will wait an hour before leaving this clearing,” he demanded. “Then and only then, will you come looking for her. By that time, I’ll be long gone, and Aria will be safe. You can have this damn pack. You have my word. Do we have a deal, brother?”

Malik’s gaze flickered to mine, just for a moment .

No, I whispered into our bond, careful not to broadcast the word to the entire pack. Don’t trust him, Malik. He ? —

Malik shuddered, and the depths of his love for me radiated through our souls’ tether. When his voice filled my mind again, he spoke to the entire clearing. No. Let her go, and you have my word that I will not kill you. I will let you live, but you will leave and never return.

The knife eased from my stomach, and I could practically smell the relief leaking from Roman’s body. “You swear it? Swear it on your pup’s life. You will not harm me.”

A long, pregnant pause. Malik dipped his big head once. I swear it.

At last, Roman’s knife fell away. He shoved me forward, and I barely managed to catch myself on my hands before colliding with the hard ground. My entire body protested at the rough treatment, but I scrambled away from the unhinged coward, desperate to reach Malik’s side.

I crawled halfway to him. When I looked up again, his wolf no longer stood in front of me.

He’d shifted into his human form. His naked body held so many new scars—horrific, brutal scars that twisted and marred his chest and abdomen, his neck and face.

He looked skinnier but stood tall, dominating the clearing despite the obvious extent of his injuries from months ago.

He was here. And he was mine.

A ragged sob slipped from my lips as he rushed to meet me, falling to the ground in front of me. My body sang as he wrapped his arms around me, hauling me into his bare chest. His scent washed over me, tobacco leaf and mint, and I wanted to drown in it.

Aria. Aria. Aria, he whispered like a man possessed. His hands grappled with me, like he wouldn’t be satisfied until our bodies melded into one .

I buried my face in his neck, tasting salt from my tears and him . My heart felt close to bursting through my chest, and our pup…

Our daughter rolled and kicked inside of me, as if she knew that her sire had finally come back to us. As if she knew our family was complete at last.

Absolute bliss consumed me. I could stay there for eternity, wrapped in Malik’s arms and revealing in the steady beat of his heart against mine. The feel of his naked skin, warm and full of life, beneath my palms.

But Malik stiffened, and I remembered the hoard of shifters surrounding us. Our reunion would have to wait.

A low growl filled my mind, penetrating the thoughts of every werewolf in the clearing, and I recognized the sound as an alpha—the true Alpha of the Intonat Nocte Pack—preparing to levy his first command.

When I looked up, Malik’s gaze rested on Roman. The male had transformed into his wolf form, undoubtedly prepared to run far, far away, but countless wolves surrounded him, nipping at his heels and keeping him in place.

He snarled and snapped his jaws as he searched for an escape, then glared at Malik. You gave me your word.

I gave you my word that I would not kill you, brother, Malik rumbled, and a wicked smirk curled on his full lips. But I’ve learned from my mistakes.

No! Roman shouted, but it was overshadowed by the resounding authority of Malik’s first command to his pack.

Kill him.