Ava's POV

The rumors were delicious.

For the past week, the entire Bloodmoon Pack had been whispering about one thing: The Night at the Black Wolf.

"Did you hear? The Beta daughter bought the bar." "I saw Alpha Cole dripping in champagne. He looked like a drowned rat." "Where did she get the money?"

I walked through the Pack House corridors, my heels clicking on the marble. Warriors who used to ignore me now stepped aside, eyeing me with a mix of fear and confusion. I wasn't the "help" anymore. I was the crazy ex with a bottomless bank account.

I pushed open the door to the Alpha's Office.

"Why are you still here?"

Lexi was sitting at my desk, trying to figure out the filing system. She looked exhausted. Apparently, being the "future Luna" was harder than just looking pretty.

"Because of Article 4, Section 2 of the Pack Code," I said breezily, dropping my bag. " 'An un-rejected mate must remain within territory limits until the Alpha Succession is finalized.' "

I leaned against the doorframe, smirking. "Believe me, Lexi. If I could leave without being hunted down as a Traitor, I'd be in Paris right now. But I have seven days left. So, I'm here to... finish my paperwork."

"Finish?" Lexi scoffed, gesturing to the piles of chaotic documents. "You haven't done a thing all week! The supply routes are a mess. The vendors are calling me!"

"And what did you tell them?"

"I told them I'm the new Luna!"

"And?"

"And they hung up on me!" She threw a stapler at the wall. "Fix it, Ava! Cole is furious. The pack is running out of meat."

I laughed. It was a cold, sharp sound.

"You wanted the title, Lexi. You get the job."

I walked over to the main server-the digital brain of the pack.

"What are you doing?" Lexi narrowed her eyes.

"Just... cleaning up."

I typed in my admin password. [DELETE ALL CONTACTS?] [YES.]

[WIPE PATROL SCHEDULES?] [YES.]

[ERASE FINANCIAL RECORDS?] [YES.]

"You know," I said conversationally, watching the progress bar load. "Cole has been avoiding me since the bar. Is he still trying to wash the champagne smell out of his ego?"

Lexi stood up, her face flushing red. She marched over, getting in my face.

"He's not avoiding you! He's busy! He's preparing for our mating ceremony!"

She yanked down the collar of her pink cashmere sweater. There, on her neck, was a fresh, angry purple bruise. A hickey.

"See?" She preened, desperate to hurt me. "We were up all night. He said he needed to reclaim his pride after your little stunt. He promised that the second he becomes Alpha... he's marking me right here."

My eyes flicked to the mark. A week ago, it would have killed me. Now? It looked like a desperate branding on a piece of cattle.

"Congratulations," I deadpanned. "I hope he's better in bed than he is at managing a budget. Because honestly? The bar is low."

Ding. [DELETION COMPLETE.]

I pulled my flash drive out of the server. The pack's logistics were now officially a ghost town. Good luck running a territory when you don't know who supplies your food or where your borders are.

"I'm done here," I said, zipping up my jacket. "I have one last perimeter check to log before my shift ends. Then, I'm officially off the clock. Forever."

"You're going on patrol?" Lexi looked suspicious. "Why?"

"To make sure the sensors are... calibrated," I lied smoothly. (I had actually turned them off yesterday).

"I'm coming with you," Lexi announced, grabbing her coat.

I paused. "Excuse me?"

"Cole said I need to show 'Luna leadership.' If you're going to the border, I'm going too. I need to make sure you aren't stealing pack secrets."

I looked at her. Really looked at her. She was wearing heels. In the forest.

"Suit yourself," I smiled, a predator sensing prey. "But try to keep up, Princess. The woods are dangerous at night."

The forest was suffocating. The sun was setting, casting long, bloody shadows across the tree line.

I walked fast, enjoying the way Lexi huffed and puffed behind me.

"Slow down!" she whined, tripping over a root. "My feet hurt! Ava!"

"This is the job, Lexi," I called back without stopping. "Luna isn't just a title. It's work."

"I hate this," she muttered. "I hate you."

My wolf, Nyx, suddenly spiked in my mind. Her hackles raised. [Ava. Stop. Something is wrong.]

I froze. The birds had stopped singing. The air tasted metallic. Like copper. Like rot.

Rogues.

I reached for my radio to call it in-habit, really. But then I remembered the deleted files. The disabled sensors. No one was coming.

Except...

Crack.

A twig snapped.

I turned slowly.

Three pairs of glowing yellow eyes emerged from the darkness.

Lexi walked right into my back. "Why did you stop? I swear to the moon goddess, Ava, I'm telling Cole you-"

She looked up. She saw the eyes.

Her scream shattered the silence.

Ava's POV

The first rogue lunged.

It was a blur of teeth and muscle. I dodged, but not fast enough. Claws raked across my forearm, shredding my jacket and skin.

Fire exploded in my nerves. Blood-hot and metallic-sprayed onto the dead leaves.

"Help! Cole! HELP ME!" Lexi shrieked, cowering on the ground like a child.

The second rogue circled me, drool dripping from its jaws. I was cornered. Nyx was growling, begging to shift, to rip them apart, but I couldn't. Not yet. If I shifted now, Cole would know I had a wolf. He wouldn't let me go.

I grabbed a fallen branch, swinging it like a bat. "Back off!"

The rogue snapped the wood like a toothpick.

I braced myself for the kill.

ROAR.

A massive shape crashed through the underbrush.

Cole.

He burst into the clearing in his human form, eyes glowing red, partially shifted. He looked magnificent and terrifying-a true Alpha.

"Cole!" Lexi screamed. "Save me!"

The rogue nearest to Lexi lunged at her.

The rogue nearest to me lunged at my throat.

Time slowed down. Cole looked at the rogue attacking Lexi. Then he looked at me, blood dripping down my arm, the beast inches from my face.

He had a choice.

He didn't hesitate.

He dove for Lexi.

He tackled the wolf attacking her, ripping its throat out in one brutal motion. He gathered Lexi into his arms, shielding her body with his own.

And he left me to die.

I watched, paralyzed, as the second wolf's jaws opened wide, aiming for my neck.

So this is it, I thought, a bitter calmness washing over me. He really did choose her.

I closed my eyes.

WHOOSH.

The air pressure dropped. The temperature plummeted to zero.

There was a sound like a guillotine blade slicing through meat. Thwack.

Warm liquid splattered across my face. Not my blood.

I opened my eyes.

The rogue that was about to kill me was gone. Or rather... it was in pieces. Its head was rolling on the grass five feet away.

Standing in front of me was a man.

He was massive. Taller than Cole. Broader. He wore a black tactical suit that strained against his muscles. His hair was dark as ink, and he radiated an aura so powerful, so suffocating, that the remaining rogue whimpered and bolted into the trees.

The stranger didn't chase it. He turned slowly to face me.

My breath hitched.

He was devastatingly handsome, with sharp, aristocratic features and a scar cutting through his left eyebrow. But it was his eyes that froze me. They were the color of glacial ice. Cold. Ancient. Possessive.

King Kaelen.

He didn't look at Cole. He didn't look at Lexi. He looked only at me.

He stepped closer, the scent of rain, steel, and expensive scotch enveloping me. He reached out, his large hand gently cupping my uninjured cheek. His thumb brushed away a speck of blood.

Electricity arced through my skin where he touched me. My knees went weak.

"Found you," he murmured, his voice a deep rumble that vibrated in my chest.

"You..." I stammered, my brain misfiring. "You're the King."

"And you," he said, his eyes darkening as they dropped to the wound on my arm, "are bleeding."

The tenderness in his voice was terrifying.

"Cole!" Lexi's voice shattered the moment.

Cole was standing up, helping Lexi to her feet. He looked shaken, staring at the dead rogue, then at Kaelen.

"Who the hell are you?" Cole barked, trying to regain control. "This is Bloodmoon territory!"

Kaelen finally looked at Cole. The temperature dropped another ten degrees. He didn't shout. He didn't growl. He just looked at Cole like he was an insect.

"You let your Mate face death while you saved a mistress?" Kaelen asked. His voice was quiet, lethal.

Cole flinched. "She's not-"

"Silence."

Kaelen turned back to me, scooping me up into his arms like I weighed nothing. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his chest. He felt... safe.

"Put her down!" Cole stepped forward, his Alpha ego bruising. "Ava is my pack member!"

Kaelen paused. He looked over his shoulder, his lips curling into a cruel smirk.

"Not anymore, boy," Kaelen said. "You threw her away. Now? She's mine."

He walked into the shadows, carrying me away from the life that almost killed me, and into a future that felt a hell of a lot more dangerous.

And for the first time in three years, I didn't want to run.

Ava's POV

The world smelled of leather, sandalwood, and raw power.

I was sitting on the hood of a sleek black SUV parked deep in the shadows of the forest road. My arm was stinging, but the pain felt distant, numbed by the sheer intensity of the man standing between my knees.

King Kaelen.

He held my injured arm with terrifying gentleness. He wasn't using magic; he was using a first-aid kit, his large, calloused hands cleaning the rogue's claw marks with precision.

"He left you," Kaelen said. It wasn't a question. It was a verdict.

"He chose her," I corrected, watching the antiseptic bubble on my skin. "He always chooses her."

Kaelen's jaw tightened. He wrapped a sterile bandage around my forearm, his touch lingering on my skin. The heat from his fingers seeped into my bones, making my wolf, Nyx, purr in a way she never had for Cole.

"If I were your Alpha," Kaelen murmured, his ice-blue eyes locking onto mine, "I would burn the world before I let a scratch mar your skin."

My breath hitched. The air between us crackled, thick with a tension that felt dangerous and inevitable.

"Why are you here, Kaelen?" I whispered. "Why me?"

He finished the bandage, securing it with a silver clip. "Because, Ava. You are the only thing in this pack worth saving."

He leaned in, his lips brushing my ear. "Come with me. Now. Leave this trash behind."

I wanted to. God, I wanted to jump in his car and never look back. But then my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Gordon (Dad): [Don't forget. Mom's birthday memorial is tonight. You need to sign the inheritance transfer papers. Be there, or the deal is off.]

The money. My mother's jewelry. The last pieces of my dignity.

I pulled back from Kaelen, steeling myself. "I can't. Not yet. I have to go back. I need to get my money and my mother's things. Then... then I'm yours."

Kaelen studied me for a long moment, then nodded. "One night. But take this."

He pressed a small, black device into my hand. A panic button.

"If they touch you," he promised, his voice dark, "press it. And I will level the Ashford Estate."

I walked into the Pack House twenty minutes later, my arm in a sling, my face pale but composed.

I barely made it to the stairs before a door slammed open.

"Where the hell have you been?!"

Cole stormed down the hallway, still smelling of the forest and Lexi's cheap perfume. He looked frantic, but not for me. He looked... annoyed.

"I was getting patched up," I said coldly, lifting my bandaged arm. "Since you were too busy playing hero to your mistress to check if your Mate was bleeding out."

"Don't start with that drama," Cole barked, grabbing my uninjured shoulder. "You're fine! You walked away, didn't you?"

"I almost died, Cole!"

"You're exaggerating! Lexi was traumatized! She's fragile!" He loomed over me, using his Alpha voice to try and cow me into submission. "You ran away, Ava. You abandoned a pack member during an attack. That is cowardice."

I stared at him. The gaslighting was so blatant it was almost impressive.

"I abandoned her?" I laughed, a hollow sound. "You tackled a wolf off her while another one was ripping my arm open. You didn't even look back."

"Because I knew you could handle it!" Cole shouted, his face turning red. "You're the Beta's daughter! You're supposed to be strong! Lexi needs protection. You don't!"

"You're right," I said softly. "I don't need protection. Not from you."

Cole blinked, thrown off by my sudden calm. "Good. Then stop whining. Get changed. We're going to your parents' house for the memorial dinner. And fix your attitude. Lexi is still shaken up, and I expect you to be nice to her."

"Nice?" I smiled, touching the bandage Kaelen had wrapped. "Oh, don't worry, Cole. I'm going to be unforgettable."