Zodiac Aligned

CHAPTER ONE The stars twinkled above me, cold and beautiful, and I couldn't help but wonder if my fate was written in their shimmering light. I stared at them, desperately hoping for a sign of some kind, or a hint of what my future held, but all I felt was lost, with no way to find the path I was meant to follow. I turned my gaze back to what lay before me, but it did nothing to lift my spirits. The snow-covered clearing where the Convergence battle had happened the day before had been ravaged, torn up by both human feet and wolf claws. Some of the ground was scorched from the Sun Witch's flames, and the smell of death and smoke hung thick in the air. On one side, a cluster of tents had been set up haphazardly in a ragged line for all the remaining shifters, many of whom were tending to the wounded and sleeping off the post-battle exhaustion. It was a temporary setup, but we all needed to recover before making any hard decisions about what to do next. So many lives had been lost when the Sun Witches had taken control of the Zodiac Wolves and made them fight each other like mindless animals. Even more were injured, and some of the wounds were grave. I’d walked through some of the tents earlier to check on the other packs, but at one point I’d had to leave and get some air. The sight of so many shifters injured at one time broke my heart. With the help of the Virgo and Ophiuchus healers, along with some rest and food, most of the injured shifters would be able to heal on their own over time. The others… I tried not to think about them. Especially since there was very little I could do for them now that I was no longer an Ophiuchus. It could be worse, though. Yes, we’d been horribly defeated. We’d lost so much, and all our plans to stop the Sun Witches had failed. But we'd also revealed the true depths of the Sun Witches' powers for all the Zodiac Wolves to see, and when they'd mind-controlled all of the packs—except the Ophiuchus—we'd found a way to break free. Now no one would be able to deny that the Sun Witches had been lying to us for all these years, or pretend they were still our allies. We'd even managed to score a minor win of our own too. Two shifters stood in front of one of the tents, guarding it. Although Evanora had escaped, along with the magical staff she used to mind control us, we’d managed to capture her daughter, Roxandra. We had her knocked out with Ophiuchus poison for now, but we weren’t taking any chances. She'd been put under heavy surveillance, and she’d be kept that way until we decided what to do with her. Roxandra was our best bet at finding a way to defeat the Sun Witches, and I couldn’t wait until we could get her to a secure location and talk to her. She had information we needed, including how to break the false mate bonds. At this point, I was willing to try just about anything to get rid of the mating bond with Jordan. Something caught my eye, drawing my gaze toward the edge of the clearing. The Aquarius pack moved as one, heads held high, though their faces were haggard and their eyes were wary as they disappeared into the snowy forest. I wasn't surprised to see them go. Many of the other packs had already left to return to their pack lands. The Scorpio, Aries, and Taurus packs had been the first to go, unsurprisingly. They'd been allied with the Leos and the Sun Witches, and none of us knew whose side they were on anymore. Would they ally with us now that they'd seen how the Sun Witches were controlling them? Could we trust them if they did? For now, we’d let them go. Every other pack would be heading out in the morning too, returning to their pack lands to recover and regroup for the next fight. There would be a next fight, that much was clear, and we all needed to decide what we were going to do about it. Something rustled in the bushes behind me, and I spun around quickly, already moving into a fighting position and drawing moon magic into my hands. I was still on edge from the fight, and half expected Evanora to loom out of the forest, staff in hand and ready to kill me for taking her daughter. When I saw who it was, I still didn’t relax. Kaden stood behind me, his dark hair unruly and his beard a bit too long. He moved with an alpha's grace and a masculine presence, though his steps were more hesitant as he neared me. When his eyes met mine, a rush of heat swept over me. I found myself drinking in the sight of him like I was parched for thirst and only he could sate me, but then I quickly looked away. I hated that he still could elicit that reaction from me with just a look. "Is everything okay?" he asked. "I saw you go out here alone, and when you didn't return..." I stiffened, torn between feeling pleased that he was worried for me, and annoyed that he wouldn't leave me alone. I'd been avoiding him as much as I could by leaving whenever he showed up or quickly excusing myself from conversations when he joined in. I knew that we’d have to talk at some point, but every time I faced him, all I felt was pain. “I just needed some air," I said. I still couldn’t believe he'd kicked me out of the Ophiuchus pack. After everything I'd been through, he had to know how much that act would hurt me, and yet he'd still done it. It didn’t matter that he’d apologized after the fact, or that he'd regretted what he had done. He had still turned his back on me and everything we'd built together, making me packless once more. I couldn’t pretend like none of that had happened, or that I hadn't been destroyed by it. He’d broken my trust. He’d broken me.