“I told you not to get caught,” he growled, yanking me to my feet.

“I slipped,” I gasped, shaking.

He scanned my face, his expression hardening. “You froze. Next time, you’ll be dead.”

“There won’t be a next time,” I snapped, snatching the dagger from the dirt. “I don’t freeze.”

Something flickered in his gaze but it vanished as quickly as it came.

“We’re leaving,” Ronan said. “Now.”

We ran together, weaving through trees, breath ragged. His presence at my side should’ve comforted me. Instead, it made the ache in my chest worse.

He used to look at me with something like warmth. Now I was just a liability.

We broke through the trees into a clearing, a safe zone Ronan had marked earlier. His scouts would find us here.

Ronan paced like a caged animal, muttering to himself. “That wasn’t a normal patrol. They knew we were coming.”

I said nothing. I was too busy wrestling with the fire in my blood, the hunger that death had not dulled.

Then the air changed.

I felt it first like static dancing along my skin.

Ronan stiffened beside me. “Someone’s here.”

A figure stepped out from the trees.

Tall. Armor etched with old runes. Eyes like molten gold.

My breath caught.

Kael

The one who condemned me to die. The one who had whispered, “You should have known your place.”

My fingers twitched toward the dagger.

But, Ronan moved between us instinctively, eyes narrowing

“You’re on the wrong side of the border, Kael.”

He smiled. “Funny. I could say the same.”

The tension snapped taut like a wire. Two Alphas. One battleground.

He looked the same, and not at all. Taller, broader, darker. His black hair was shorter now, his eyes colder. The scar along his jaw was new, but the power rolling off him was unmistakable. He wore it like a second skin. The mark of a dominant Alpha. A killer.

My breath caught.

He hadn’t changed. Not really. Not where it mattered.

His gaze dragged over me slowly, unreadable.

And for the first time, I panicked.

Stay calm. Don’t move. Don’t let him see.

My mind raced, grasping at anything that could explain why he was staring.

Mira.

The name slammed into me like a punch. My maid. My shadow. The only one who had stayed when everyone else turned away. She’d been small and quiet, barely a whisper of a girl, with a shy smile and loyal eyes. She had died because of me.

Or so I thought.

Maybe Kael thought the same. Maybe he believed I was Mira, a survivor from the wreckage he left behind.

It was the only explanation.

I gasped, staggering slightly as Ronan stepped between me and Kael without a moment’s of hesitation. His body shielded mine, his grip like steel, the force of it sending a sharp pulse of pain up my arm.

Kael’s cold gaze slid lazily over us.

A smirk curled his lips. "Keep your people in check, Ronan," he said, "Some of them don’t seem to know their place."

My breath came in short, furious bursts. Every part of me screamed to break free, to hurl the dagger straight through Kael’s black heart. But Ronan’s grip tightened, steady and firm, and the dagger dissolved into smoke between my fingers.

Kael didn’t spare me another glance. With a dismissive wave, he turned and vanished into the mist.

The moment he was gone, I yanked my wrist free and stumbled backward, wrapping my arms around myself to keep from shaking apart. Rage simmered beneath my skin, clawing and wild, and it took everything I had not to scream after him.

I barely noticed Ronan watching me until his voice cut through the haze.

"You’re angry," he said simply, stepping closer.

I pressed my lips into a thin line, forcing my breathing to steady. I couldn’t let anything slip. Not now. Not ever.

"I get it," Ronan said, his voice low. "Kael deserves worse. We all know it." He studied me for a long moment, eyes narrowing slightly. "But that doesn’t mean you get to be reckless."

I said nothing, locking my jaw tight.

"You think you could’ve taken him down?" His mouth quirked into a humorless smile. "With your little cultivation? Please."

I stiffened, humiliation prickling under my skin.

"If you’re smart," Ronan went on, voice cool and sharp as a blade, "you’ll get stronger. Smarter. You’ll survive long enough to make it matter."

His words stung more than I wanted to admit. But he wasn’t wrong. Not this time.

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and started walking back toward the camp, leaving me standing there, fists clenched, heart pounding against my ribs.

The anger didn’t fade. It burned deeper, carving itself into my bones.

I followed at a distance, shoving the storm of emotions down as deep as I could.

---

The rogue camp loomed ahead, a rough sprawl of wooden cabins and half-collapsed tents. Fires crackled in iron pits, sending smoke curling into the gray afternoon sky. Rogues moved everywhere…some training, some guarding, others simply surviving.

I kept my head down, blending into the background, just another face in the crowd.

Then a small voice rang out, clear and bright.

"Alpha Ronan!"

I looked up instinctively and my breath caught painfully in my throat.

A boy no more than eight or nine came running full tilt across the clearing. His hair was a messy mop of brown, his face dirty but smiling, and those wide, stubborn brown eyes

Lucian

My little brother.

Alive.

The ground seemed to tilt under my feet. I gripped the edge of a wooden post to stay upright, heart hammering in my chest.

Lucian barreled into Ronan, who caught him effortlessly, lifting him up with a rough laugh.

"Easy, pup," Ronan said, ruffling his hair. "You trying to knock me over?"

Lucian giggled, hugging a small wooden wolf Ronan had pulled from his belt.

I stared, swallowing hard against the lump rising in my throat.

I hadn’t known. I thought Kael’s betrayal had wiped out everything, everyone. I thought I was alone.

But Lucian was here.

Alive.

Tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I blinked them back savagely.

I couldn’t break. Not here.

The name slipped out before I could stop it, a broken whisper that barely carried on the wind.

"Lucian..."

I froze the second the word left my lips.

Ronan’s head turned, his sharp gaze flicking toward me, just for a moment.