Luna's POV

The massive black wolf moved like death itself.

I watched in shock as Kael tore into the Void Walkers with claws that glowed silver in the moonlight. He was so fast that my eyes could barely follow him. One second he was next to me, the next he had a shadow creature pinned to the ground.

The lead Void Walker snarled and lunged at Kael's throat, but Kael twisted away and his jaws closed around the monster's neck. There was a horrible crack, and the creature went limp.

"Impossible," another Void Walker whispered. "Nothing can kill us that easily."

"I'm not nothing," Kael growled, his wolf voice like distant thunder. "I'm your worst nightmare."

Two more shadow creatures attacked at once, thinking they could overpower him together. They were wrong. Kael's silver markings blazed brighter as he fought, and I could feel power rolling off him in waves. It made my healing magic tingle in response.

This wasn't the weak boy who couldn't shift. This was something ancient and terrible and beautiful all at the same time.

The wounded wolf behind me whimpered. "Luna, we need to get out of here. This is way bigger than us."

But I couldn't move. I couldn't stop staring at the impossible creature that used to be the boy I loved.

The last two Void Walkers realized they were beaten. The smaller one was already backing toward the trees, his red eyes wide with fear.

"This isn't over, First Alpha," the larger one snarled at Kael. "Master knows you're awake now. He'll come for you himself."

"Good," Kael said, blood dripping from his fangs. "I'll be waiting."

The Void Walkers melted into the shadows like they were made of smoke. In seconds, they were gone, leaving only the smell of sulfur and death behind.

Kael stood in the middle of the clearing, breathing hard. His silver markings slowly faded back to normal black fur, but his eyes still glowed like stars. He was beautiful and terrifying and completely impossible.

Then he turned to look at me.

The breath caught in my throat. Those eyes. I knew those eyes. They were Kael's eyes, just brighter now. Wilder. Full of power that made my knees shake.

"Luna," he said softly, and my name sounded different in his wolf voice. Like a prayer.

I couldn't speak. My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode. Three years. Three years since I'd seen him, and here he was, transformed into something out of legends.

Before I could stop myself, I shifted back to human form. It happened without me even thinking about it, which never happened. I always had perfect control over my shifts.

But nothing about tonight was normal.

I stood there in the clearing, staring at the massive wolf who used to be my everything. My healing magic was going crazy inside me, responding to his presence like it recognized something important.

"Kael?" I whispered.

He shifted too, and suddenly he was human again. But different. Taller than I remembered. His muscles were lean and hard from years of surviving alone. Scars covered his arms and chest like a map of all the pain he'd endured.

But his face was the same. Those kind brown eyes that used to look at me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

"Hey, Luna," he said quietly. "Long time no see."

I wanted to run to him. To throw my arms around him and never let go. But something held me back. The memory of that horrible night when I had rejected him in front of everyone.

"You're alive," I said, tears starting to fall down my cheeks. "All this time, you were alive."

"Barely," Kael said with a sad smile. "But yeah. Still breathing."

That's when it hit me like lightning.

The mate bond.

It blazed to life between us so suddenly that I screamed. Not from pain, but from the incredible rush of connection that I thought was gone forever. It was like someone had lit a fire in my chest, warm and bright and absolutely right.

But this bond was different from before. Stronger. Deeper. Like it had been sleeping for three years and now it was wide awake and starving.

Through the bond, I felt Kael's emotions crash into me. His loneliness. His pain. His desperate love that had never died even after everything that happened.

And something else. Confusion. Like he was trying to understand something that didn't make sense.

That's when the memories hit me.

Not my memories. His memories. Flowing through the bond like water through a broken dam.

I saw myself standing in front of the pack three years ago. But this time, I was seeing it through Kael's eyes. I watched myself reject him, but now I could feel what he felt. The confusion. The heartbreak. The way he kept looking at me like he was waiting for me to say it was all a mistake.

And then I felt something else in the memory. Something wrong.

Magic. Dark magic wrapped around my words like invisible chains.

"Oh no," I whispered, my hands flying to my mouth. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

More memories flooded through the bond. My mother's late-night visits to Kael when he was sick. The special herbs she always insisted on giving him. The way she watched him during training with calculating eyes.

The compulsion spell. The crystal. The way my body moved without permission that horrible night.

"I didn't mean it," I gasped, stumbling toward Kael. "The rejection. I didn't mean it. Mom made me. She used magic to control me."

Kael's eyes went wide. "What?"

"She's been poisoning you since we were kids," I said, the words tumbling out faster than I could think. "Suppressing your wolf. She knew what you were. She was afraid of you."

I reached for him, desperate to touch him, to prove this was real. But the sound of howling stopped me cold.

Pack howls. Coming from the direction of Silvercrest territory. Getting closer fast.

"They felt the power," Kael said, his body going tense. "They know something happened here."

The howling was getting louder. I could recognize individual voices now. Alpha Magnus. Beta Finn. At least a dozen others.

"Don't go," I begged, reaching for Kael again. "Please. We need to talk. I need to explain—"

"I can't face them," Kael said, backing toward the tree line. "Not yet. I'm not ready."

"Then take me with you!"

He stopped moving. For a second, hope flashed in his eyes. Then his face went sad again.

"I can't do that to you, Luna. Your life is here. Your family—"

"My family lied to me!" I screamed. "My mother destroyed us! She stole three years from us!"

The pack howls were so close now that I could hear paws hitting the ground. They would be here in minutes.

Kael looked at me one more time, and I felt his love and regret flow through the bond like a river.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "For everything."

Then he shifted back to his massive wolf form and bounded into the shadows.

"KAEL!" I screamed, running after him. "Don't leave me again! Please!"

But he was already gone, melted into the Shadowlands like he had never been there at all.

The mate bond stretched between us as he ran, pulling tighter and tighter like a rubber band. The farther he got, the more it hurt. Three years of suppressed connection suddenly trying to snap back into place was agony.

I fell to my knees in the clearing just as the first pack members burst through the trees.

"Luna!" Beta Finn reached me first, his eyes scanning the clearing for danger. "What happened? We felt something massive. Power like we've never—"

I tried to answer, but the mate bond chose that moment to tear me apart from the inside. The pain was incredible. Like someone was ripping my soul in half.

I collapsed completely, convulsing as three years of magical suppression fought against the natural bond trying to restore itself.

Through it all, I could only think one thing: Kael was alive. The boy I loved was alive and powerful and everything we thought we knew was a lie.

But as darkness closed in around me, I realized something terrifying.

If my mother had been willing to destroy both our lives to keep Kael's power hidden, what would she do now that he was awake?