ARIA'S POV
The High Alpha takes one step toward me, and everything explodes into chaos.
Thane moves so fast he's a blur. One second he's holding me, the next he's shifted into the biggest wolf I've ever seen—silver fur, scars crisscrossing his body, eyes glowing like moonlight.
Ryker and Caspian shift too. Dante appears from nowhere, already in wolf form, positioning himself between me and the advancing wolves.
"You're not taking her," Thane's voice rumbles through my mind, and I realize with shock that I can hear him even though he's in wolf form. The mate bond must allow it.
The High Alpha laughs. "I'm not asking permission, Ancient. The True Luna belongs to all packs, not just you three relics from the past."
"She belongs to HERSELF," Ryker snarls, his wolf form wreathed in living shadows that make the other wolves back up nervously.
More wolves pour into the clearing. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. From different packs, all coming for me.
I can't breathe. There are too many. Even these powerful Ancient wolves can't fight that many—
Thane's wolf turns to look at me, and somehow I understand what he wants.
He kneels down.
"Trust me," his voice echoes in my head.
I don't know why I do it. I don't know these males. But something inside me—something new and powerful and absolutely certain—says they won't hurt me.
I grab onto Thane's fur and he gently, carefully grabs the back of my shirt in his teeth—the way mother wolves carry puppies.
Then he runs.
The world becomes a blur of trees and darkness and speed I didn't know was possible. My stomach drops as Thane leaps over a fallen log that's taller than a house.
Behind us, I hear snarling and fighting. Ryker and Dante must be holding off the wolves chasing us.
"They'll be fine," Caspian's voice enters my mind. He's running beside Thane, his blue eyes glowing in the darkness. "We've survived worse than a few territorial disputes."
"A few?" I think back at him, not sure if this mental talking thing works both ways.
Apparently it does, because Caspian laughs in my head. "There are at least sixty wolves chasing us now. But Ryker loves this sort of thing. He's probably having fun."
A howl splits the night behind us—Ryker's victory cry.
"Fifty-eight now," Caspian corrects himself cheerfully.
We run for what feels like hours. My arms are getting tired from holding onto Thane's fur, but I don't dare let go. Trees whip past us. The moon gets higher. And slowly, the sounds of pursuit fade away.
The forest changes. The trees get bigger, older, and the air feels different—thicker, charged with power that makes my skin tingle.
"The Forbidden Wildlands," Caspian explains, somehow knowing my question before I ask it. "Modern wolves can't enter here. The old magic keeps them out."
"But I can enter?"
"You're not a modern wolf, little Luna. You're one of us."
Thane finally slows down, and I realize Ryker and Dante have caught up. There's blood on Ryker's dark fur, but he seems unbothered by it.
"Everyone accounted for?" Dante asks.
"Everyone who matters," Ryker responds, his black eyes fixed on me with an intensity that should be scary but somehow isn't.
We stop at the base of a mountain so tall I can't see the top. Thane gently sets me down and shifts back to human form.
I immediately sway. The adrenaline is wearing off and everything hurts again. My body remembers that I was dying just hours ago.
Ryker catches me before I fall. "Easy. We're safe now."
"Safe?" I look around at the massive, dark trees and the complete silence. Not even crickets chirp here. "This place feels—"
"Old," Thane finishes, now standing in front of me in human form. I try not to notice that he's completely naked and focus on his face. "This is the heart of the original territory. Where wolves first came into being."
"It feels like it's watching me," I whisper.
Caspian smiles. "It is. The land recognizes you. It knows what you are."
I don't know what to say to that. My legs are shaking and I'm so tired I can barely stand.
Thane notices. Of course he does. "You need rest. Healing. Food."
"I need answers," I correct him, even though rest sounds amazing right now. "You can't just kidnap me and expect—"
"We didn't kidnap you," Ryker interrupts, his voice soft but firm. "You asked us to take you away. Remember?"
I do remember. And I meant it. But now that the danger has passed and I'm standing in a dark forest with four massive males I don't know, reality is setting in.
"I don't understand any of this," I admit, hating how my voice shakes. "I don't understand what I am, why you want me, how I can hear your thoughts—"
"We'll explain everything," Thane promises. "But first, you need to see your new home."
He gestures toward what I thought was just a shadow on the mountain.
It's a cave entrance. But not like any cave I've ever seen. The opening is huge, and there's a faint glow coming from inside—blue and silver light that pulses like a heartbeat.
"This is where we've slept for a thousand years," Caspian says quietly. "Waiting for you."
Something about his words makes my chest tight. They've been asleep for a thousand years? Waiting for me?
"I'm nobody," I whisper. "I'm just—"
"Our Luna," all three of them say at the same time, their voices overlapping in my head and out loud.
The certainty in their voices almost makes me believe it.
Thane holds out his hand. "Come. Let us show you."
I stare at his hand. This is it. The moment I decide. Do I trust these strangers who call themselves my mates? Do I step into that cave and accept this new impossible reality?
Or do I run back to the pack that rejected me, the father who never defended me, the life where I was nothing?
I take Thane's hand.
His fingers close around mine, warm and strong and somehow familiar. The golden thread connecting us pulses with approval.
He leads me toward the cave entrance. Ryker and Caspian walk on either side, close enough that I feel protected but not trapped.
We step through the entrance and—
I gasp.
The cave is massive inside, but that's not what steals my breath.
There are things in here. Ancient things. Weapons on the walls—swords and axes that look like they're made of starlight. Furs on the floor that shimmer with colors I don't have names for. And in the center of the cave—
An altar. Made of black stone, covered in symbols that glow with that same blue-silver light.
"What is this place?" I breathe.
"The Luna's Den," Thane says reverently. "Where the first True Luna performed the bonding ceremony that created our kind."
I walk toward the altar like I'm being pulled. The symbols call to me somehow, whispering in a language I don't know but somehow understand.
My hand reaches out to touch the stone—
"WAIT!" Caspian shouts, his eyes going white again. "Don't touch it yet!"
I freeze, my fingers inches from the altar.
"What? What do you See?"
Caspian's whole body goes rigid. When he speaks, his voice sounds far away and terrified.
"If you touch that altar before the seals are fully broken, it will kill you. But if we break the seals without the altar's protection, the power surge will kill everyone within a hundred miles."
Horror floods through me. "So I'm stuck? I can't touch it, but I have to?"
"No," Ryker says quietly. His face has gone pale. "There's a third option."
"What option?" I demand.
Thane and Ryker exchange a look that makes my stomach drop.
"Tell me!" I practically shout.
Thane turns to me, and his silver eyes are full of an emotion I can't name.
"We have to complete the mate bond," he says quietly. "All three bonds. Tonight. Before your power fully awakens."
My heart stops. "Complete the bond? You mean—"
"Yes," Caspian whispers, his eyes still glowing. "Or by dawn, your power will tear you apart from the inside."
The cave suddenly feels too small. Too hot. I can't breathe.
"How long do I have?" My voice is barely a whisper.
Caspian's eyes meet mine, and the fear in them tells me everything before he speaks.
"Four hours. Maybe five."
The world tilts.
I have to mate-bond with three strangers I met three hours ago, or I'll die.
And somewhere in the distance, I hear a howl that sounds suspiciously like the High Alpha.
He found the Wildlands entrance.
He's coming for me.