Kira's POV
The letter is burning in my hand before the messenger wolf can even finish bowing.
"Wait—" he starts, but I'm already dropping the flaming paper into the dirt, watching Daemon's words curl into ash. His fancy handwriting. His expensive paper. All of it turning to nothing, just like he made me feel for eighteen years.
"Tell him I said no," I snap. "Tell him I'll burn every letter he sends. Tell him to leave me alone."
The messenger—a young guy who looks barely older than me—shifts nervously from foot to foot. "Luna Kira, please. Alpha Daemon specifically said—"
"I'm not a Luna," I interrupt, my voice sharp as broken glass. "And he's not my Alpha. Go back to Silvercrest and don't come here again."
He leaves, tail literally between his legs.
Knox appears from the trees, arms crossed over his chest. "That's the third one this week. You planning to burn down the whole forest with his letters?"
"If that's what it takes." I kick dirt over the ashes. Through our stupid bond, I can feel Daemon's reaction to the burned letter—a spike of pain, then desperate determination. Good. Let him hurt.
"You know he can feel you doing this, right?" Knox says. "Every time you burn a letter, he knows."
"Perfect." I march toward the training grounds, my hands still shaking. I hate that they shake. I hate that even now, three weeks after running, part of me wanted to read that letter. My traitorous wolf keeps whispering what if he's sorry? What if he's changed?
But I remember the mud puddle when I was ten. The laughter when I tripped in the cafeteria at thirteen. The cold, disgusted look on his face the night my wolf awakened. You don't erase that with pretty words on expensive paper.
"Again!" I shout at Sera, who's already panting from our last round. "I need to hit something."
"You need therapy," she mutters, but she gets into fighting stance anyway.
We're halfway through the match when I smell her. Jasmine and honey—Zara. My best friend shouldn't be here, shouldn't risk crossing into rogue territory, but I know that scent anywhere.
I freeze mid-punch. "Zara?"
She stumbles out from behind Elder Thorne's cabin, looking exhausted and scared. There's a fresh bruise on her cheek.
I'm across the clearing in seconds. "Who hurt you? Was it Daemon? Because I swear—"
"It wasn't Daemon." Zara laughs, but it sounds broken. "It was my own father. He found out I was planning to visit you and tried to stop me." She touches the bruise gently. "Apparently, being friends with a 'rejected defect' makes our family look bad."
The rage that floods through me is hot and sharp. "I'm going to kill him."
"Get in line," Zara says tiredly. "But that's not why I'm here. Kira, things are happening back home. Big things. You need to know."
We sit by the stream where Knox found me that first night. Zara pulls out a water bottle and drinks half of it before speaking.
"Daemon broke his engagement with Stella."
The words hit me like a physical blow. "What?"
"Publicly. In front of the entire pack. Two days ago." Zara's eyes are serious. "He stood up during the full moon gathering and said—and I'm quoting directly—'I cannot marry someone I do not love when my true mate exists. The engagement is ended.'"
My wolf perks up with interest. I shove her down hard. "He only did that because of the bond. It's making him crazy."
"Maybe," Zara admits. "But Kira, you didn't see his face. He looked... broken. Like actually broken." She pulls her knees to her chest. "And he's changing everything. All those horrible laws Alpha Ryker had? The ones about late bloomers being demoted? About omega punishment? Daemon's removing them. All of them."
"So what?" I throw a rock into the stream. "He's trying to look good so I'll come back. It's manipulation."
"I thought so too," Zara says quietly. "But then he did something weird. He went to every person you ever worked with—the library, the kitchens, everywhere—and apologized to them. For how he treated you. He didn't have to do that. Nobody asked him to."
My chest feels tight. I don't want to hear this. I don't want to feel this flutter of maybe-hope in my stomach.
"He's searching for you constantly," Zara continues. "He's lost weight. He barely sleeps. Cain says he wakes up screaming sometimes, having nightmares about you dying alone somewhere." She reaches for my hand. "I hate him for what he did to you. You know I do. But Kira... he looks like someone who's losing their mind."
"Good," I say, but the word tastes like a lie.
Through the bond, I can feel him right now—that constant ache of longing, the desperate need to find me, to fix things. It's been there for three weeks, never stopping, never fading. He's probably at the boundary again, waiting like he does every day.
"There's something else," Zara says, and her voice drops to a whisper. "Something bad."
The fear in her tone makes my wolf go on alert. "What?"
"Stella met with Elder Moira three days ago. I saw them in the old temple ruins, the ones nobody uses anymore. I couldn't hear everything, but..." Zara's hand trembles in mine. "Kira, they were talking about killing you. About some kind of dark magic that can steal a wolf's essence."
My blood runs cold. "Why?"
"Because you're a Silver Wolf. Apparently, your power is worth more than gold to the right people. And Moira—" Zara swallows hard. "Moira knows forbidden magic. The kind that got wolves executed in the old days. She's planning something, and Stella's helping her."
Before I can respond, Elder Thorne appears, moving faster than a woman her age should be able to. Her face is pale.
"We have a problem," she says. "A big one."
She leads us to her cabin, where Knox and Sera are already waiting. On the table is a piece of paper, and the handwriting makes my stomach drop. It's the same handwriting as the letters I've been burning.
But this isn't from Daemon.
"Read it," Elder Thorne commands.
I pick up the paper with shaking hands:
To the rogues harboring Kira Ashwood—
This is Alpha Ryker Silvercrest. You are sheltering property of Silvercrest Pack. My son may be too weak to retrieve her, but I am not. You have three days to return her, or I will bring an army and burn your settlement to the ground.
Consider this your only warning.
The paper crumples in my fist. "He's bluffing. He can't attack rogue territory without breaking pack law."
"He can if he claims you were kidnapped," Sera says grimly. "If he says we took you against your will, other packs would support his right to rescue you."
"But that's a lie!"
"Since when did that matter to Ryker?" Knox's jaw is tight. "We need to prepare for war."
My wolf is snarling, ready to fight. But then I feel it through the bond—Daemon's absolute terror. He just found out about his father's plans. I can feel his panic, his fury, his desperate need to stop this.
"There's more," Zara whispers, pulling another piece of paper from her pocket. This one is in different handwriting—sharp, spiky letters that seem to cut across the page. "I found this in Moira's chambers when I was sneaking around."
I read it out loud: "The ritual requires three things: a Silver Wolf's blood, a broken mate bond, and the dark of the new moon. In three days, we move."
Three days. The same timeline as Ryker's ultimatum.
That's not a coincidence.
"They're working together," I breathe. "Ryker and Moira. She told him where I am."
"But why?" Sera demands. "What does Ryker get out of this?"
Elder Thorne's face is grave. "If Moira steals your essence, Kira, the bond will break completely. Daemon will be free to marry Stella, and Ryker gets his perfect political alliance." She touches my shoulder gently. "And Moira gets the power of a Silver Wolf for herself."
The room spins. They're going to kill me. Not just reject me, not just hurt me—actually kill me and steal my wolf.
"We fight," Knox says immediately. "We defend the settlement."
"Against Ryker's army?" Sera shakes her head. "We'll be slaughtered."
"Then we run," Zara suggests desperately. "Kira disappears again, somewhere they can't find her."
But Elder Thorne is looking at me with sad, knowing eyes. "There's only one way to stop this, child. And you know what it is."
I do know. I've known since I read Ryker's letter. The only thing that will stop this war, that will protect the rogues who took me in, that will keep Moira from stealing my wolf, is—
"I have to go back," I whisper.
"NO!" Zara grabs my arm. "Kira, if you go back, they'll kill you anyway!"
"Not if I go to Daemon first." The words taste like poison, but I force them out. "If I accept the bond completely, Moira's ritual won't work. And Ryker can't claim I'm stolen property if I'm there willingly."
"You'd be walking into a trap," Knox warns.
"I'd be saving your lives," I counter. "All of you. Ryker wants an excuse to wipe out this settlement. I won't let that happen because of me."
Through the bond, I feel the exact moment Daemon realizes what I'm planning. His emotions explode—hope, fear, desperation, love so intense it steals my breath.
Don't come for me, I think at him furiously through the bond. I'm not coming back for you. I'm coming back because I have no choice.
His response is immediate: I'll take any reason. Just come home.
Home. As if Silvercrest was ever home. As if anywhere with him could be.
But as I stand there, surrounded by people I've come to love, I realize something terrible: I don't have a choice anymore. I never did. From the moment the mate bond snapped into place, my freedom was an illusion.
"When do we leave?" I ask Elder Thorne.
"Dawn," she says. "I'll send word ahead that you're coming under rogue protection, as a guest, not a prisoner. It's the only way to keep you safe from Ryker's immediate retaliation."
That night, I can't sleep. I stand at the boundary stones, staring across at Silvercrest territory. Somewhere in the darkness, Daemon is waiting. Probably going crazy knowing I'm coming back.
My wolf is torn between excitement and terror. He's our mate, she whispers. He'll protect us.
"He's the reason we need protecting," I remind her.
But deep down, I wonder. The letters I burned—what did they say? The changes Zara described—are they real? The broken man she saw—is that who Daemon really is, or just another trick?
I'm about to find out.
A twig snaps behind me. I whirl around, ready to fight—
And freeze.
Elder Moira stands in the shadows, her eyes glowing with dark magic. Behind her are four wolves I don't recognize, all wearing strange symbols painted in blood.
"Going somewhere, little Silver Wolf?" Moira smiles, and it's the coldest thing I've ever seen. "I'm afraid I can't let you complete that bond. Your essence is far too valuable."
She raises her hands, dark power gathering around her fingers like smoke. "This will hurt terribly. But don't worry—you won't have to suffer for long."
The wolves move in, cutting off every escape route.
I'm trapped.
And the ritual is starting three days early.