AYLA – POV
The rogue stepped from the trees like he'd been waiting all night.
His grin was sharp, hungry. His scent was thick with poison and iron. And when his gaze dropped to my neck, I felt it like a claw dragging across my skin.
"You smell like prophecy," he said, licking his teeth. "Like moonlight and old bones."
Kael moved to step in front of me.
I grabbed his arm.
"No."
The rogue tilted his head. "Let the little queen speak."
"I'm not yours to claim," I said.
"Didn't say I'd claim you. Said I'd take what's in you?"
The trees fell quiet. Even the birds stilled.
Rylan had vanished into the shadows behind us. Watching. Ready. But this was my stand to make.
My wolf bristled, furious. She placed just behind my ribs, snarling to be set free.
I didn't hold her back.
The rogue came fast.
Faster than I expected.
A blur of muscle and fury, hands clawed, teeth already bearing for a strike.
I didn't scream.
I didn't dodge.
I stepped straight into the attack, letting instinct guide the rest.
His hand reached for my throat—
I caught it.
And burned him.
The moment our skin touched, my runes lit like wildfire.
Silver and white, snaking down my arms, spiraling from my spine, flaring across my palms. My magic surged, not in words, not in spells — but pure bond-force.
His skin blistered.
He screamed.
Kael shouted something behind me, but I wasn't listening.
The rogue dropped to his knees.
But he wasn't done.
He shifted — bones cracking, fur bursting through torn skin, a massive black wolf with wild scars and white eyes.
And then he lunged.
Straight for my chest.
My wolf howled inside me.
I didn't shift.
But I moved like I had.
I ducked low, rolled, came up under him — and shoved my burning palm against his heart.
The world snapped.
Light exploded from my body in every direction.
The air tore open around us like cloth ripping through the wind. The ash tree behind me shivered.
And the rogue—
Stopped.
He stared at me with wide, wet eyes.
Then he fell forward.
Dead.
Smoke poured from the hole in his chest.
I stood shaking.
My breath ragged.
The glow faded slowly from my skin.
Kael stepped toward me—slowly, cautiously, like he was approaching a goddess he wasn't sure he had permission to kneel for.
"You didn't shift," he said.
"No."
"You killed him without touching your wolf."
"I was my wolf."
Kael's eyes locked on mine.
Something in him bent in that moment—not with weakness, but with understanding.
He knew now.
I was no longer becoming.
I had arrived.
The rogue's body still smoked behind me.
The forest hadn't made a sound since the killing blow.
It was as if the world was waiting to see what I'd do next.
I stared down at my hands, the runes now faded, the glow gone. Just skin again. Just flesh.
But I didn't feel empty.
I felt full.
Unshakably full.
Like the blood running through me now wasn't just mine.
It was hers.
The First Luna.
And she wasn't whispering anymore.
She was watching.
Kael came closer, slow and careful, but his energy had changed.
Less commanding.
More… aware.
I looked at him.
He didn't speak.
He just shrugged off his cloak and draped it over my shoulders.
Warm.
Heavy.
And not to protect me.
To honor me.
"You could have let me fight him," he said.
"I didn't need you to."
"I know."
We stood in the clearing as dawn broke over the trees, light slicing the grove in long, golden lines.
"I've never met anyone who could do what you just did."
"Neither have I," I said quietly.
He didn't smile.
He looked like he was bracing himself.
"For what it's worth," he said slowly, "I didn't come here to claim you. Not anymore."
I blinked.
That wasn't what I expected.
"I came here," he continued, "because the bond nearly broke me. But I'm staying because you won't."
I turned away from him and looked toward the tree.
The bark shimmered faintly, a soft pulse like breath under moonlight.
I stepped forward and pressed my palm to the trunk.
It felt warm.
Alive.
A memory I hadn't lived.
And beneath it, a pulse of something rising in me again — slower this time. Gentler.
Not rage.
Not fire.
Something older.
A presence that wrapped around my spine like a crown.
And then I heard her voice again, soft, buried deep in my chest:
"You don't need to be chosen. You are the one choosing."
I turned back to Kael.
He hadn't moved.
"Do you want the bond?" I asked.
He frowned. "I thought I did."
"That's not an answer."
"I want you," he said. "But not if the bond's the only reason you stay."
I stepped toward him.
One step.
Then another.
I could feel it again — the thread between us.
Not pulling.
Just waiting.
"I'm not ready," I said.
"Then I'll wait."
I stopped in front of him.
Close enough to feel his heat.
His breath.
His restraint.
"And if I never choose you?"
His jaw tensed. "Then I'll still make sure no one else takes what you never gave."
I stared at him for a long, long moment.
And for the first time since I was dragged from my healer's ward and stripped of everything I knew—I felt something I hadn't expected to find again.
Safety.
Not because someone stood in front of me.
But because someone finally stood with me.
The ash tree cast long shadows across the clearing, golden light bleeding into the groove as the first true rays of dawn broke through the canopy. The rogue's body lay smoldering behind me, smoke curling up from his chest like an offering no one asked for.
I didn't look at it again.
I didn't need to.
I wasn't afraid of what I'd done.
I was afraid of how easy it had been.
The runes that had lit across my arms had gone dark again, fading to faint etchings like ash on flesh. My body still trembled slightly, not from weakness — from resonance.
I felt it humming inside me, under my skin, in the marrow of my bones. A presence I hadn't summoned, but no longer denied.
Her.
The First Luna.
Not whispering now. Rooted.
I was no longer a girl trying to survive the bond.
I was the wolf they'd tried to erase.
And the crown I'd spent my whole life pretending didn't exist?
It was no longer sitting on my head.
It was woven into my spine.
Kael approached slowly, his boots barely stirring the leaves. His presence was heavy—but not overwhelming. A thunderstorm on the edge of control. The Alpha King with his head bowed, and not out of submission.
Out of acknowledgement.
He held out his cloak.
Not in command.
But in offering.
I took it.
Wrapped it around my shoulders.
It smelled like pine, iron, and storm. Like him. Like control held tight beneath calloused hands.
"You could have let me fight him," he said finally, voice low.
"I didn't need you to."
"I know," he said. No bitterness. Just the truth.
I sat at the base of the tree, pulling the cloak tighter, letting the bark press into my spine. Kael stood above me, then sank down slowly to sit beside me.
Not touching.
Not crowded.
Just… near.
We sat in silence while the light shifted through the branches, dancing across his bare chest and the scars I hadn't noticed before.
Old ones.
Not from wolves.
From something else.
"You've fought a lot of battles," I said softly.
He didn't answer right away. "Not like yours."
"What kind was mine?"
He turned to me, expression unreadable. "The kind where you bleed without permission… and rise anyway."
The words settled deep in my chest, warming something I didn't realize had gone cold.
"You're different than I expected," I said.
"And you're everything I didn't think I deserved."
I looked away quickly.
That was too much.
Too soon.
But he didn't push it.
Didn't lean closer.
Just said, "I didn't come here to force the bond. Not anymore."
I raised my eyes. Met him.
"I thought you were obsessed."
"I was," he said, with no shame. "It nearly ruined me."
"And now?"
"Now I know that having you isn't the same as deserving you."
I turned my head toward the tree, pressing my palm to the trunk.
The bark pulsed faintly beneath my fingers — alive, warm, ancient. A breath trapped in time.
A memory curled inside me, soft as smoke.
Her voice. Not loud. Not demanding.
Just a present.
"You are not the chosen. You are the one choosing."
I closed my eyes and let the meaning root in my chest.
When I turned back to Kael, the air between us shifted.
"I don't know what I want yet," I said quietly. "But I know what I don't."
"What's that?"
"To be anyone's conquest. Not yours. Not the bond's. Not fate."
He nodded slowly.
"I'll walk beside you," he said, "even if it means never touching you."
I didn't move.
But I felt something tug — not the bond.
Something quieter.
Like maybe, for the first time, I could want without being owned.
"I'm not ready," I whispered.
"Then I'll wait."
"And if I don't choose you?"
"I'll still protect you. But not because you're mine. Because you are you."
I leaned back against the tree, closing my eyes.
For a heartbeat, I let the silence hold us.
Not as Alpha and Luna.
Not as mates.
As two creatures finally finished chasing.