Chapter Three

ARIA

If anyone saw me the moment he turned his back on me and walked away, they'd assume I was epileptic. I was shaking, almost violently from the shock and the rejection. It felt like a part of me had been ripped away. My chest heaved with sobs I couldn’t control. My entire world had collapsed in the space of a few devastating minutes. Connor was gone. He'd walked away, he'd left me broken and hollow. I was still sitting on the spot, finding it so hard to register the words.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy boots crunching against the ground made me lift my head. Two sentinels rushed into the compound from the woods looking so grim.

"Aria!" One of them barked sharply at me. "Did you see a rogue around here?"

I stared at them, unable to form words. My throat felt dry, as if all the air had been stolen from my lungs. The tears kept rushing down my face, but I didn't wipe them away. The second guard knelt in front of me, holding out something that made my stomach twist violently. A torn pendant. Connor’s pendant.

"This was found at the boundary beside a guard who was knocked out and we believe it belongs to the rogue Alpha we’ve been looking for- the one responsible for the attacks on our Pack."

The shock tripled as my gaze locked on the silver pendant. The inscription on it was unmistakable: "Strength through fire." I had traced the words on his chest so many times before, memorising every curve and line. I found it hard to believe he was a rogue. He'd told me he was looking for a Pack to join and that he liked ours... He lied to me!

"Aria? Please say something."

The voice snapped me out of my troubled reverie. I looked up at the guard and shook my head violently, cutting him off. "No," I whispered, my voice cracking. "I didn't see anything."

The guards exchanged a look before standing. "If you see anything, please let us know immediately," the second guard's tone was heavy with warning.

They turned and hurriedly marched off into the night. The front door opened and Leila, my friend who was crashing over for a few nights, stepped out.

"Aria," her voice was all I needed to know she was petrified. She'd seen and heard it all. She stepped off the porch and came closer.

"Why did you lie? That pendant was Connor’s, wasn’t it? He rejected you..."

I shook my head. "Not now, Leila. I don't want you talking about him."

"He needs to be punished. And if the guards are right, Aria... if the guards are right, then Connor might have been responsible for your father's death."

"Shut up!" I screamed, grabbing my head as the pain exploded. It was followed by a high-pitched ringing sound in my head. My father's face flashed in my mind- his strong hands, his booming laugh, the way he used to ruffle ruffle hair and call me his little fighter even though he never believed in me.

"No," the words slurred as the nausea struck me. I tried to stand but I couldn't even move my legs. "That can't be true. He wouldn't-"

"Aria!" She yelled, but that was the last thing I heard. The last thing I remembered was collapsing.

I woke up to the smell of antiseptic and the sound of a beeping monitor overhead. The bright lights made me squint and my head pounded like someone had driven a spike through it. The doctor was standing by the foot of my bed, carrying a clipboard. And Leila was sitting by my side, eyes red-rimmed from crying.

"You're awake," the deep voice said. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." I sat up slowly, because every movement felt like a Herculean task. "What happened to me?"

He hesitated before speaking. "You're pregnant, Aria." The words had barely registered when Leila took my hand and held it close.

The room seemed to spin, and I grabbed the edge of the bed with the other hand, my heart pounding. Pregnant? With Connor's child?

Getting rid of the child was never an option. Despite the lies, betrayal and the pain, I couldn't kill my baby. The baby was the last piece of Connor I had left, and I was determined to give it a life worth living. When word went around, Noah, my father’s closest ally, stepped up in ways I never expected. He promised to help raise the child and train it with the discipline and honour my father believed in.

Five years passed, but the pain never truly faded. Every single day was a battle to move forward and focus on the child I was raising instead of the man I'd lost. One night, news came that fifty rogue hunters had been killed in the no-man’s territory which was a dark, lawless stretch of forest which wasn't far from the Crescent Moon Pack.

Scared that the rogues would soon start their attacks, Noah and I decided to move immediately. He had some friends several miles away to the North where we could settle and keep our mind off rogues.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked him as we prepared to leave. I was helping Valerian into his small coat, to protect him against the cold before strapping him on my back. He strapped on the small luggage we were travelling with, not looking at me.

"We owe it to the hunters to find out what happened. But the only way we can do that is to survive, and the only way to survive is to escape while we still can. Those filthy rats will come for us soon!" He hissed, almost swearing by the Luna's tits but stopped the moment he saw Valerian. I'd cautioned against swearing whenever he was around.

We left early that night with hopes that we would arrive at the YellowStone Pack by dawn if we travelled the whole night without stopping. But something about the darkness felt so scary and the way the trees seemed to melt and change form under the crescent moon made it feel like we were walking through the belly of a sleeping giant.

That's when something slithered behind us. I turned sharply as my pulse quickened, following the sound but whatever it was had vanished into the woods.

"Mommy, what's that?" Valerian's innocent voice came through.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Just close your eyes and sleep, okay. Mommy's here."

I playfully looked over my shoulder to make sure he'd done that. He giggled softly when he saw me looking, then quickly shut his eyes. I smiled, but my stomach was rolling with fear and foreboding.

"Aargh! Fuck!" Noah yelled behind me before crashing with a violent thud.

Rogues burst from the darkness, charging at us. "Kill them both!"

A loud command thundered, chilling close. I swung the dagger with all the strength I could muster, slicing the blade across the arm of the rogue in front of me. He howled in pain, clutching the wound as I twisted around to dodge another attacker, stabbing the dagger onto his side and twisting it. A scream tore out of his throat before he fell with a plomb.

"Leave us alone!" I yelled, slamming my elbow into the jaw of another rogue. The satisfying crack spurred me on, sending jolts of adrenaline careening through my veins. Valerian cried out with a shrill and terrified voice behind me.

"It's okay, Valerian. Mommy's here." I called out even though my heart broke with every word. The rogues kept coming. Bigger, meaner ones soon emerged from the shadows, with eyes that glowed with savage glee.

One of them grabbed me from behind but I sank the dagger into his thigh, but another struck me across the face before I could react. I fell flat on my face to protect Valerian before raising my hands in surrender. They descended on me, before strapping me off me.

"No! Don't take him!" I screamed as one of them yanked him off. Valerian's little hands reached for me as the tears ran down his eyes.

"Mommy!"

"Give him back!" I yelled, struggling against the rogues who'd pinned me down.

"Jake, should we kill her?" A voice above me asked.

"Wait!" Another voice thundered in.

"She fights too well for a woman. Let the Alpha know we have interesting visitors.”