POV: Kael
After Aria went back inside, I stayed out under the stars.
The wind cut sharp, but I didn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything through the weight in my chest.
Something was pulling at me. A memory, or maybe a warning. The way Aria’s magic pulsed under her skin—it didn’t feel foreign. It felt… familiar.
Not because of her. Because of me.
Because I’d felt it once, a long time ago. Before I understood what it meant to be the Alpha. Before I understood that our blood carried more than strength.
It carried secrets.
At dawn, I went to the tomb.
It wasn’t a crypt so much as a circle of stones carved into the cliff face beneath the sacred tree. No one was allowed there unless they bore the mark of the Alpha. Which meant for years, it had remained undisturbed.
I lit the ceremonial
