Cazriel lunged forward just as Valen's claws cut across the air where Aurelia's head had been. She hit the ground hard, rolling behind a fallen log as snarls and growls burst all around them.
"Stay down!" Cazriel roared, shifting into his huge black wolf mid-leap. He crashed into Valen with the force of a landslide, both Alphas tumbling through the underbrush in a tangle of teeth and rage.
Aurelia's heart hammered as she watched her mate fight for her life. But her eyes kept moving to Lyanna, who stood perfectly still among the chaos, watching the battle with cold, empty eyes.
"Lyanna!" Aurelia called out frantically. "It's me! It's your sister!"
But Lyanna just tilted her head like she was listening to something no one else could hear. Then she smiled, and it was the most frightening thing Aurelia had ever seen.
Kane grabbed Aurelia's arm. "We need to go! Now!"
A howl of pain cut through the night. Cazriel's wolf form stumbled, blood dripping from a gash on his shoulder. Valen circled him like a predator, amber eyes glowing with joy.
"You always were too weak, Cazriel," Valen growled, shifting back to human form. "Too soft to do what needs to be done."
That's when everything changed. Cazriel's pack fighters burst through the trees like a silver storm, surrounding Valen's wolves. In seconds, the forest became a battlefield.
"Enough!" Cazriel's words boomed across the clearing as he shifted back to human form. Blood ran down his arm, but his ice-blue eyes burned with Alpha power. "This ends now, Valen."
Valen laughed, the sound like breaking glass. "Does it? You still don't have what you came for." He nodded to Lyanna, who stepped forward.
Aurelia's breath caught as her sister walked closer, moving like a ghost through the fighting wolves. "Hello, Aurelia," Lyanna said, her voice soft and sweet like it used to be. But her eyes were still cold. "I've been waiting so long to see you again."
"Lyanna, please," Aurelia whispered, tears running down her face. "I never stopped looking for you. I thought you were dead. I blamed myself—"
"You should blame yourself," Lyanna cut her off. "You let them take me. You let them hurt me. You never came for me."
The words hit Aurelia like physical blows. "That's not true! I didn't know! No one told me".
"Lies," Lyanna said, but for just a second, something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked almost like the little girl Aurelia remembered.
Then Valen whistled, sharp and commanding. Lyanna's face went blank again, and she turned away from Aurelia like she was nothing.
"Another time, perhaps," Valen said, his amber eyes fixed on Cazriel. "But this conversation isn't over."
In a flash of movement too fast to follow, Valen and his wolves were gone. And they took Lyanna with them.
Aurelia fell to her knees, sobbing. She'd been so close. So close to getting her sister back, and now Lyanna was gone again.
Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her against a warm chest. She looked up to see Cazriel holding her, his face tight with pain—and not just from his wounds.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm so damn sorry, Aurelia."
"You knew," she said, her voice breaking. "Kane said you knew where she was all along."
Cazriel's arms tightened around her. "Yes. I knew."
The admission hit her like a slap. She tried to pull away, but he held her firm.
"But not the way you think," he said quickly. "Let me explain. Please."
Aurelia stared at him, her heart torn between rage and the mate bond that made her want to trust him despite everything. "Talk," she said.
Cazriel ran a hand through his dark hair, and she could see how much this was costing him. "I've been hunting Valen for three years. Ever since I found out what he was doing to the girls he'd taken."
"Girls? Plural?"
"Lyanna wasn't the first," Cazriel said, his voice hard with anger. "Valen has been taking young she-wolves from different packs for years. All of them born under special moon phases. All of them powerful."
Aurelia's blood ran cold. "What does he do to them?"
Cazriel's jaw tightened. "He breeds them. Forces them to have children with his strongest soldiers. He's trying to create a super-pack of wolves with abilities beyond anything normal."
The world spun around Aurelia. "Breeds them? Like... like animals?"
"The girls who refuse..." Cazriel's words trailed off, but she could see the answer in his eyes. They didn't survive.
"Oh god," Aurelia whispered. "Lyanna..."
"She's still alive," Cazriel said quickly. "But only because she's special. Born under the twin moon like you. Valen thinks she's the key to his final plan."
"Which is what?"
"To create a wolf powerful enough to challenge every Alpha in existence. A wolf that could rule over all packs."
Aurelia stared at him in horror. "And you've known this for three years? You've known my sister was being... being used like that, and you did nothing?"
"I did everything!" Cazriel's control finally snapped. "Do you think I wanted to leave her there? Do you think it was easy, knowing what was happening to her?"
"Then why didn't you save her?"
"Because every time I tried, more girls died!" Cazriel shouted. "Every time I got close, Valen would kill three more to punish me. I had to be smart about it. I had to wait for the right moment."
"What right moment?"
Cazriel looked at her, and she saw something in his eyes that made her breath catch. "You. I had to wait for you."
"What do you mean?"
"The mate bond between us isn't just about attraction," Cazriel said. "It's about power. Together, we're stronger than either of us could be alone. Strong enough to take on Valen and his entire pack."
Aurelia shook her head. "That's impossible. I'm nobody special. I'm just a rogue who.."
"You're the other twin," Cazriel interrupted. "Born under the same moon as Lyanna. You have the same power she does, but yours is still dormant."
"I don't understand."
Cazriel cupped her face in his hands, his ice-blue eyes fierce. "I sought you out, Aurelia. The mate bond led me to you, yes, but I was already looking. I knew that to save your sister, I'd need you."
The truth hit her like a physical blow. "So this is all just about using me. Just like Valen is using Lyanna."
"No." Cazriel's voice was fierce. "It started that way. I won't lie to you. But now..."
"Now what?"
"Now I'd burn down the world before I let anyone hurt you," he said, and she could hear the truth in his words. "Somewhere along the way, this stopped being about duty and started being about you."
Aurelia stared at him, seeing past his cold mask for the first time. She could see the pain there, the guilt, the fear. He'd been carrying this burden alone for years.
"If I help you," she said slowly, "what happens to Lyanna? What if she doesn't want to be saved?"
"Then we save her anyway," Cazriel said. "And we figure out how to break whatever hold Valen has on her mind."
"It means war."
"It was always going to mean war," Cazriel said. "The question is whether we fight it on our terms or his."
Aurelia looked into his eyes and made her choice. "I'll help you. But I have conditions."
"Name them."
"No more lies. No more secrets. If we're doing this together, then we're really together."
"Agreed."
"And when we save Lyanna, you let me decide what's best for her. Not you. Not the pack. Me."
Cazriel hesitated, then nodded. "Agreed."
"And one more thing," Aurelia said, her voice hardening. "My father. After we save Lyanna, I want answers from him. All of them."
"Aurelia—"
"All of them, Cazriel."
He sighed. "Your father... he's not the man you remember."
"What do you mean?"
But before Cazriel could answer, Kane came crashing through the trees, his face white with panic.
"We have a problem," he gasped. "A big one."
"What now?" Cazriel demanded.
Kane looked between them, his face grim. "I just got word from my contacts in the Bloodmoon Pack. Valen isn't just planning to breed Lyanna."
"Then what?"
"He's planning to mate her," Kane said. "
Tomorrow night. At the blood moon ceremony."
Aurelia's heart stopped. "Mate her to who?"
Kane's next words hit like a death sentence: "To himself."