MARKED BY SHAME, CHOSEN BY FATE

Aria’s POV.

Soft. Warm. Safe.

Leo’s hand took hold of my cheek, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw with a reverence that made my breath hitch. We were alone, the world outside fading into a blur of meaningless color. There was only him. Only the scent of cedar and rain that clung to his skin, and the way his golden eyes bore into mine—not with pity, but with want.

“Aria,” he murmured, his voice low enough that I felt it more than I heard it. "I choose you. It’s always been you."

He leaned in, his lips inches from mine, the heat radiating off him promising a future I hadn't dared to dream of. I closed my eyes, leaning into him, my heart soaring—

Thwack.

A low-hanging branch slapped me squarely across the face, stinging my cheek and shattering the illusion into a million humiliating pieces.

I stumbled, my boot catching on a root, and nearly face-planted into the damp, rotting leaves of the forest floor. The warm, cedar-scented air of my daydream vanished, replaced instantly by the biting chill of the wind and the smell of wet dirt.

"Stupid," I hissed under my breath, righting myself and rubbing my stinging cheek. "Stupid, pathetic Aria."

I stood there for a moment in the dark, my chest heaving—not from passion, but from the exertion of hiking with a heavy satchel.

Moon goddess, when would I stop doing this?

Leo was the future Beta. He was strength, lethal grace, and the Pack’s most promising warrior. And I? I was Aria. The biological error. The living, breathing reminder of Alpha Damien’s one night of infidelity with a human woman.

Leo didn't look at girls like me with desire. He looked at me the way one looked at a wounded bird—with a mix of pity and mild annoyance that I couldn't fly.

I adjusted the strap of my bag, the glass vials of wolfsbane and valerian clicking together—a reminder of my reality. I wasn't a mate. I was an assistant, a glorified herbalist allowed to live in the pack house only because the Luna was too dignified to throw a bastard out on the street.

I checked the sky and felt a spike of genuine fear. The moon was high. Too high.

"Shit," I whispered, breaking into a jog.

If I were anyone else, being late wouldn't matter. But I walked a razor’s edge in this pack. One wrong move, one loud noise, one curfew missed, and I gave them a reason to remember I didn't belong. I had to get back to the servant’s entrance before the guards changed shifts.

I moved faster, my human legs burning as I navigated the treacherous path. I was the weakest thing in these woods, and I knew it.

I decided to cut through the training grounds. It was risky, but it would shave ten minutes off my trek. The path opened up into a secluded clearing, a place usually abandoned and silent at this hour.

As I neared the tree line, my heart was still thumping with the remnants of that embarrassing fantasy. Maybe one day, a traitorous voice in my head whispered. Maybe when he’s Alpha... maybe he’ll see past the rank.

I stepped into the clearing, the apology for my lateness already forming on my tongue in case a guard was there.

But the words died in my throat.

The air didn't smell like the cold night anymore. It was thick. Heavy. Suffocatingly hot with the scent of an aroused wolf.

In the center of the clearing, bathed in a cruel spotlight of silver moonlight, my fantasy came to life—twisted into a nightmare.

Leo was there.

But he wasn't looking for me. He wasn't whispering my name.

He was pressed up against the rough bark of a massive oak, his large hands gripping the hips of a woman I recognized instantly. Jessica. The head tracker’s daughter. She was beautiful, strong, and a shifter. Everything I wasn't.

Jessica’s legs were wrapped tight around Leo’s waist, her head thrown back as she gasped. Leo’s face was buried in the crook of her neck, his movements rough, possessive, and starving.

It wasn't the gentle, romantic love I had just hallucinated about in the woods. This was raw. This was primal. This was a wolf claiming what he wanted.

I stood frozen in the shadows, the visual hitting me harder than the branch had.

My chest hollowed out. The contrast was physically painful. Minutes ago, I had been convincing myself that maybe, just maybe, I had a chance. That maybe his kindness meant something more.

Watching him devour her, I realized how delusional I really was. Leo didn't want a fragile human. He wanted fire. He wanted a mate who could take his roughness, not one who would break under it.

Tears pricked my eyes—hot and fast. I didn't have the right to cry, but I couldn't stop it. I needed to leave. I needed to vanish before I saw something that would haunt me forever.

I took a shaky step backward, desperate to return to the safety of the dark woods.

Clink.

My heel slipped on a mossy stone. My heavy satchel swung forward, smashing against the trunk of the tree next to me. The glass vials inside collided with a high-pitched, crystal-clear chime that cut through the panting silence like a scream.

The movement at the oak tree stopped instantly.

Leo went still. Slowly, terrifyingly, he pulled back from Jessica’s neck.

He didn't look human at that moment. He whipped his head toward the darkness, his gaze locking with supernatural precision on exactly where I stood.

His eyes were glowing. Not the soft, loving amber of my dream, but a burning, predatory gold.

"Who's there?"

The voice was a growl, dripping with Alpha authority and interrupted lust. It vibrated through the ground and locked my feet to the earth.

Terror washed over me cold and sharp. I scrambled back, turning to run, but I was human. I was slow.

Whoosh.

A blur of motion tore across the clearing.

Before I could take a second breath, a hand shot out of the darkness, grabbing my wrist with a grip like a steel shackle.

I gasped as I was yanked from the shadows and slammed hard against the nearest tree.

"I said," Leo snarled, his face inches from mine, his gold eyes blazing with fury, "who is stalking me?"

Then, the clouds shifted. The moonlight filtered through the leaves and illuminated my terrified face.

Leo’s grip didn't loosen. He stared down at me, his chest heaving, his scent overwhelming my senses. His eyes shifted as recognition settled in, the gold dulling enough for shock to surface. “Aria!” he called softly.

"What the hell are you doing here?"