I should’ve known today would be a disaster the moment I woke up to rain hammering against my window. It was the kind of downpour that soaks you no matter how fast you run. Fitting, really, given the mood around the pack house since my little “run-in” with the witches four days ago.

The plan was simple: spar with Damien since I was stuck with him, burn off the restless energy that had me wound tight since” well, since I crossed paths with a witch whose ember eyes have been haunting me ever since. Nothing like a good fight to drown out whatever existential crisis was bubbling under the surface.

But halfway through our usual routine—jabs, blocks, and his occasional snide remark—Damien bailed. Said he had somewhere to be, but the way his eyes kept flickering over my shoulder, it was obvious. He was avoiding someone.

It didn’t take me long to figure out who. Neither of them had ever acknowledged the friction between them, but it had been there for years.

It wasn’t always like this. It wasn’t long ago that Kael, Marrick, and Damien were inseparable, an untouchable trio that ruled the wolf territory long before any of them had titles. It was a perfect balance of power, loyalty, and brute force—Kael was the strategist, Marrick was the enforcer, and Damien was the executioner.

But somewhere along the way, it changed. I noticed it first, small things at first—Damien standing a step too far behind Kael instead of at his side. Kael issuing orders to him that held just enough jabs to sound like a challenge instead of a command. Whatever had happened between them, they had buried it deep, and flayed whenever I tried to bring it up. Eventually, I had to accept that whatever had fractured their bond was irreparable.

And whatever it was, Damien had no interest in dealing with Kael today.

“You’re getting sloppy, Luna,” came the drawl from behind me as Damien’s silhouette vanished into the mist up ahead. “Or is Damien going easy on you these days?”

I didn’t have to turn to know who it was. But I did anyway, because ignoring Alpha Kael would be a crime.

He was leaning casually against one of the wooden posts in Damien’s backyard like he owned the world—which, as Alpha, he sort of did. Even in the rain, with mud splattered across his boots, Kael managed to look like he stepped out of a damn portrait. Broad-shouldered, sharp-jawed, and with the kind of piercing green eyes that made most she-wolves lose their minds. His dark hair was slicked back, wet from the downpour, and his stupidly perfect grin was firmly in place.

Unlike the rest of us, Kael never dressed like a warrior expecting war. He didn’t have to. He wore a dark leather coat, fitted across his broad chest, the crest of Nightclaw embroidered into the sleeve.

He wasn’t alone, either. Behind him, two warriors lingered near the perimeter of the sparring grounds, their black tunics marked with the same insignia. His escorts, and Kael always travelled with at least two of them, hand-selected guards from his inner ranks. Kael had arrived on horseback, his dark stallion tethered a few feet away, its coat slick with rain. I thought it was silly to ride a horse under the rain when he could have used a vehicle.

If I weren’t who I was, if we weren’t already so familiar, I would’ve had to kneel at his approach, lower my head in submission as was custom for any wolf facing their Alpha. But Kael and I had never followed customs. We broke them just by standing here like this.

I wiped a strand of wet hair from my face, realizing that compared to him, I probably looked like a drowned rat. “Didn’t realize you were watching, Alpha. Would have put on a show for you.” The title rolled off my tongue with a bit more bite than necessary. “Don’t you have anything more important to do?”

He chuckled, pushing off the post and sauntering toward me with that infuriating, easy confidence. “Ouch. Someone’s in a mood.”

“Someone has reason to be,” I said, crossing my arms, ignoring the way my damp clothes stuck to my skin. Kael didn’t even look uncomfortable. If anything, the rain only made him look more annoyingly appealing. I wanted to hate him for it.

“Hard as it is to believe, I’m not here to get an eyeful of you.” He grinned. “The Thetas have called for an inquisition. We should go.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Since when does the Alpha personally escort cast-outs to an inquisition?”

Kael smiled. “Since that “cast-out” is you.” He had that look in his eyes, the one that always made me uneasy. “And you are not a cast-out.”

I sighed, wiping the sweat—and rain—off my face. “I’m not a cast-out yet.”

Kael stepped closer, his towering frame casting a shadow over me. “You think I will let them exile you, Luna? If I had known Marrick would put you on watch when I sent him to you, I would have come instead.”

“And what if they insist on it?” I asked him, because the stench of whatever diabolical magic those witches used on me still lingered, which was quite worrisome. “What if they think I’m compromised and put the safety of the pack ahead of everything else, which is their duty?”

“I won’t let them.”

There it was again, that assurance that he’d always protect me. It was infuriating how much I wanted to believe him. Kael always took care of me and looked after me like I was the most important thing in his world, like nothing else mattered. But it wasn’t just that. He believed he could protect me and fix everything because that’s what he did.

And maybe that was the problem.

“Kael,” I started, but he held up a hand.

“Let’s not have this conversation again,” he said. “I know what you’re going to say.”

Of course, he did. We’ve had this conversation before. And the one before that. And every single time, it ended with the same look in his eyes.

Kael had always been too protective, but lately, there was something else. A desire in the way he looked at me. The unrequited offer that lingered between us.

He wanted me to be his chosen mate. And no matter how much he tried to dance around it, I knew that was what this was all about.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

Being Kael’s chosen mate would make me the second most powerful wolf in Anarion. It was an offer any she-wolf with an ounce of ambition would kill for. And one already had her sights set on him.

Selene Duvall, daughter of one of the Elder Council’s most powerful members and a flawless example of what a future Luna should be. She was poised, ruthless when necessary, and backed by the old bloodlines who believed that an Ultima Alpha’s mate should be more than just a warrior and an abnormality. More than me.

Selene wasn’t a random contender for Kael’s attention. The Elders had been grooming her for this role since we were children, moulding her into the perfect political choice. If Kael had any sense, he’d give in to them. He’d pick her, solidify alliances, and end this ridiculous game of chasing after something that was never going to happen.

But Kael was nothing if not stubborn. And for whatever reason, he had decided that it had to be me.

Which made everything worse. Because as much as the Elders despised me and tried to ignore the fact that I was the highest-ranking she-wolf in our pack by birthright, my very existence disrupted their carefully crafted plans.

And I had no intention of making their lives easier.

I started walking past him, fully aware of his eyes on me. Suddenly, my green combat pants and training vest felt too revealing. “You know I’m not interested in being saved, right?” I threw over my shoulder.

Kael sighed, and for a moment, I felt bad for him.

“I’m not trying to save you,” he said, catching up, and his escorts followed at a distance. “I’m trying to keep you safe. As your Alpha and your friend.”

I stopped, turning to face him. “Is this really because you’re my Alpha? Or is it something else?”

His jaw clenched, that perfect, square jawline of his tightening just enough for me to notice. He didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice had lost its usual tenacity. “You know I’d never force you into anything.”

I shrugged, pretending like I didn’t care. But since I found my mate, I’d been wondering if the only way to stop this bond with the witch from haunting me was to take a mate. And not just any mate, Kael.

“Right. But the Elders can. They could decide at this inquisition, and whatever they say, I have to follow.”

His hand brushed mine, soft, careful, like he was afraid of how I’d react. “Leave me to worry about that. You just get through it. Besides, if the Elders could force anything, I would already be mated to Selene, don’t you think?”

The way he said it, so matter-of-fact, so damn resigned, made something uneasy coil in my stomach. Because he wasn’t wrong. The Elders had been circling him for years, pressuring him to take a mate that suited their plans, not his. And yet, he had defied them. Repeatedly.

I pulled my hand away before the contact lingered too long. “Maybe you should’ve let them,” I muttered.

Kael huffed a quiet laugh. “Maybe I should’ve.”

Something about the way he said it made my stomach twist, an odd feeling settling over my chest. It wasn’t often that Kael sounded discouraged, let alone doubtful. The idea of him with Selene should’ve meant nothing to me, should’ve been an easy, obvious solution to his problems. She was bred for diplomacy and power. It made too much sense.

But I recoiled at the thought.

Not because I wanted him. Not like that at all. But because a world where Kael belonged to someone else was almost as strange as the one where I belonged to a witch.

And wasn’t that just my luck? Two impossible fates dangling in front of me, each one leading to ruin in its own way.

I forced my voice to stay flat. “Then why didn’t you?”

Kael tilted his head slightly, his gaze never leaving mine. “You already know the answer to that.”

I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest as the rain continued to pour. “You haven’t asked me what happened out there.”

Kael’s expression didn’t change. “I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. I only care that you are safe.”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “That’s rich coming from you. You know every damn thing that happens in this pack before it even reaches the Elders, but this you’re waiting for me to bring it up? Or is it because I didn’t link to you when it happened?”

I saw the shift in his stance, the way his fingers flexed ever so slightly. “I wondered when you’d bring that up.”

I folded my arms. “You should be the one asking why I didn’t. Any wolf in danger can call on their Alpha, and you can track your own, no matter where we are. You should have felt something was wrong the moment it happened.”

His green eyes darkened, the easy smile he’d worn earlier vanishing. “I did feel it.”

He did? The Alphas of Anarion were powerful in a way that was uncanny sometimes. Their connection to their pack was an unbreakable tether. Kael should have been able to find me, should have been able to sense immediately I was in trouble and reach into my mind.

But it wasn’t that I hadn’t called for him. It was that I couldn’t. The bond simply wasn’t there. In all my twenty-three years, I had never struggled to link to my Alpha. Not when Kael took the title. Not when his father held it before him. That connection had always been as natural as breathing, an instinct that tethered me to the pack no matter how far I roamed.

But four days ago, when I reached out for it, I found nothing. Just silence. A vast, empty void where the bond should have been, like someone had taken a blade to it and severed the thread entirely. And I still didn’t know if that terrified me more than the witches themselves.

“Then why didn’t you come for me?” I asked quietly.

Kael exhaled sharply. “Because I thought you’d fight your way back like you always do. And you did. But the moment I felt that bond pulse so intensely, I knew it wasn’t like before. You were in serious danger, so I sent Damien out to find you, but by then it was too late. The bond broke and you had disappeared completely.”

My breath caught in my throat. “The bond” broke?”

Kael nodded slowly, rain dripping down his jawline. “For hours, Luna, you weren’t there. You weren’t anywhere. Not in the link. Not in the pack’s consciousness. It was like you had been erased. And that has never happened before.”

My stomach twisted. That wasn’t something that should have been possible. The pack bond was absolute, a tether between Alpha and wolf, something even death didn’t break immediately. Wolves who died often lingered in the link for minutes, sometimes hours, before the severing was complete. But for Kael to say I had been gone—not just out of reach, but erased—what did that mean?

Was this fated? Some cruel design that I had been born to fulfil? I had spent my whole life thinking I was a mistake, an anomaly in my bloodline, but what if I wasn’t? What if I had been meant for something else?

The thought made me sick.

There was only one person who might have answers. And if I wanted to understand what was happening to me, and learn why I had been severed from my own kind, I was going to have to face him again.

That witch.

Kael’s jaw tensed. “You’ve been through enough, Luna. I wasn’t going to push you to tell me anything until you were ready.”

“That’s a first,” I muttered, shifting my weight. “Let’s be honest, Kael. You don’t need to ask me what happened. I am bound, as a new groundskeeper to report to you and the council. The parts that have the Alphas up in arms and the Elders foaming at the mouth. But the rest of it doesn’t concern you.”

His eyes darkened slightly. “You think this doesn’t concern me? You think I don’t care?”

“That’s not what I said. I think you care too much. But you don’t care about the truth. You care about damage control. You care about what this means for the pack, for the Alphas, for you.”

He stared at me for a long moment, the rain sliding down the sharp angles of his face, before he exhaled slowly. “If that were true, I would have already forced the truth out of you.”

I clenched my jaw at the implication. He could’ve. He still could. If Kael wanted to use his Alpha command, there wouldn’t be anything I could do about it.

And yet, he hadn’t. I wasn’t sure if that made me trust him more or less.