Chapter 3: The Night They Called Me Traitor

Ten years earlier

The moon hung full and heavy over Silvermoon, a pale witness to the celebration below. Aria pressed her palms against the cool stone of the balcony railing, her heart thrumming a wild rhythm that had nothing to do with the bonfires blazing in the clearing or the howls of joy rising from the pack.

Tonight, Kael would be named Alpha heir.

And tonight, he’d promised to claim her.

She touched the silver chain at her throat, the one he’d given her three moons ago beneath the old oak. A simple thing, but it held the weight of every whispered promise, every stolen kiss, every moment he’d looked at her like she was the moon itself.

“Can’t sleep?”

Aria spun, a smile already blooming—and found not Kael, but Mira, her foster sister, emerging from the shadows of the corridor. Mira’s copper hair caught the torchlight, her green eyes glittering with something Aria couldn’t name.

“Too excited,” Aria admitted, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Where’s Kael? I thought he’d come find me before the ceremony.”

Mira’s expression flickered—a crack in her carefully painted smile. “He’s… with my father. Last-minute preparations.” She stepped closer, her scent carrying an odd, bitter undertone. “You really love him, don’t you?”

“With everything,” Aria whispered.

Something cold flashed across Mira’s face. “Then you should know—there are those who think a rogue-born girl has no place beside an Alpha heir. That you’ve been… using him. Climbing toward a crown that was never meant for you.”

The words struck like a slap. Aria had heard the whispers, of course. The orphan taken in by the Beta’s family out of pity. The girl with no bloodline, no pedigree, no right to dream of more.

But Kael had never cared about any of that.

“Kael doesn’t see me that way.”

“No,” Mira agreed softly. “He doesn’t.” She reached out, and before Aria could react, Mira pressed something cold and metallic into her palm. “But the Council will.”

Aria looked down.

A dagger. Silver, ornate, its hilt engraved with the Silvermoon crest. The ceremonial blade that should have been locked in the Alpha’s vault.

“What—?”

“Guards!” Mira screamed, her voice splitting the night. “Guards! She has a weapon! She’s going to kill the Alpha!”

The world shattered.

Aria barely had time to process before boots pounded against stone, before hands seized her arms, before the dagger was wrenched from her grip and held aloft like a trophy of war. Mira was crying now—perfect, crystalline tears streaming down her cheeks—as she pointed a trembling finger at Aria.

“I saw her,” Mira sobbed. “She said she’d rather see the Alpha dead than let Kael marry someone of proper blood. She said—she said she’d kill him herself before she let him go.”

“No!” Aria thrashed against the guards’ grip. “That’s a lie! She gave me the dagger! She—”

“Silence!” The Alpha’s voice boomed across the courtyard as he emerged from the great hall, his mate at his side, his expression carved from ice. Behind him, Kael appeared—and the look on his face stopped Aria’s heart.

Confusion. Horror. And something else, something that cut deeper than any blade.

Doubt.

“Kael,” she breathed. “Kael, please. You know me. You know I would never—”

But he didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just stood there as the guards forced her to her knees, as the Alpha pronounced her fate.

“Aria of no house, no bloodline, no claim to Silvermoon—you are hereby accused of attempted murder against the Alpha and conspiracy to usurp the pack hierarchy. The penalty is death.”

“No!” The word tore from her throat, raw and desperate. “Please, I’m innocent! Mira set me up—she’s lying! Kael, please, look at me!”

He did. And in his eyes, she saw the war—the love, the doubt, the fear. She saw him take a step forward, saw his hands clench into fists.

And then Mira was there, her hand on his arm, her voice soft and poison-sweet. “Kael, don’t. She’s not worth your honor. Your father is right—she was always going to betray us. You know what she is.”

What she is. A rogue-born orphan. A girl with no place, no name, no worth.

She watched the doubt win.

Kael stepped back.

The Alpha raised his hand. “For your crimes, I show mercy. You will not die today. Instead, you will be branded a traitor and banished from Silvermoon. If you ever return, you will be executed on sight. Do you understand?”

“Kael,” she whispered one last time.

He turned away.

The brand came next—a searing iron pressed to the back of her neck, marking her forever as a traitor. Aria screamed. She screamed until her voice gave out, until the pain became a white-hot blur, until hands dragged her to the border and threw her into the darkness beyond.

She landed hard on the forest floor, mud splattering her dress, the taste of blood filling her mouth where she’d bitten her tongue. Above her, the moon still hung full and indifferent, casting silver light on a world that had just ended.

And then she heard it.

A howl. Low and mournful, rising from the Silvermoon territory behind her. It wasn’t a celebration. It wasn’t a warning.

It was a wolf—broken, confused, and utterly alone.

She closed her eyes. Of course. The bond. Even now, even after everything, the bond still lived. Still hummed between them like a severed nerve, refusing to die.

But he had let her go. He had watched her burn and done nothing.

Aria pushed herself to her feet. She touched the brand at her neck, felt the raised, ruined skin. Then she looked at the silver chain around her throat—his chain—and ripped it off.

It landed in the mud at her feet.

She walked into the darkness without looking back.

But the bond—the bond didn’t care about betrayal. Didn’t care about shame or pain or the shards of a shattered heart.

The bond was still there. Waiting. Burning.

And ten years later, standing in the shadows of the Silvermoon hall, Aria would feel it again—that same impossible pull, that same wolf howling her name across the void.

Kael.

He was coming for her.

And this time, there was nowhere left to run.

The howl came again, closer now, and Aria’s eyes snapped open.