The breakfast plate crashed to the floor, sending scrambled eggs flying everywhere.
Aria stared at the mess, her hands shaking. It was her third broken dish this week, and the pack members eating in the dining hall were all staring at her again. Their whispers buzzed in her ears like angry bees.
"The Luna can't even hold a plate."
"How is she supposed to lead us?"
"Kael made a terrible mistake."
"I'm sorry," Aria whispered to the omega who rushed over to clean up. "I didn't mean to—"
"It's fine, Luna," the omega said, but her voice was tight with irritation.
Aria wanted to crawl under the table and disappear. Two weeks had passed since the incident with the government agents and her explosive power. Everyone in the pack knew something strange had happened, but no one talked about it directly. They just watched her like she might explode again at any moment.
Kael sat at the head table, reading papers and ignoring her completely. He did that a lot. Watch her fail, then pretend she didn't exist.
"Perhaps you should eat in your room from now on," Cassandra said sweetly, appearing beside Aria like a shark smelling blood. "Until you learn some basic table manners."
Heat rushed to Aria's cheeks. She wanted to say something back, but Damon had told her that fighting with Cassandra would only make things worse.
"I'm fine," Aria said, picking up a new plate with extra careful hands.
But she wasn't fine. Nothing about this was fine.
After breakfast, Cassandra dragged her to something called "Luna lessons." Today they were learning how to address the pack during meetings.
"Stand up straight," Cassandra snapped. "You look like a wilted flower."
Aria straightened her shoulders, but it felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. The fancy clothes that didn't fit right, the way everyone expected her to know things she'd never learned, the constant feeling that she was disappointing everyone.
"Now, practice your introduction," Cassandra said. "Remember, you're representing the Alpha. Act like it matters."
"Hello, I'm Luna Aria," she started.
"Wrong. You don't just say hello like you're meeting someone at a grocery store. You're addressing your people. Try again."
Aria took a deep breath. "Greetings, pack mates. I am your Luna—"
"Boring. And your voice is too quiet. Louder."
"Greetings, pack mates. I AM YOUR LUNA—"
"Now you sound like you're yelling at children. Find the middle ground."
This went on for two hours. By the end, Aria's throat hurt and she still couldn't get it right according to Cassandra.
"We'll try again tomorrow," Cassandra said with a disappointed sigh. "Assuming you don't break anything else before then."
Aria fled to the garden, the only place in the pack house where she felt like she could breathe. The plants here grew wild and free, reminding her of the forest where she'd lived with the rogues.
She was sitting by a rose bush when she heard footsteps behind her.
"You're doing it wrong," Kael's voice made her jump.
He stood a few feet away, his golden eyes unreadable as always. This was the first time he'd spoken directly to her since the government incident.
"I'm not doing anything," Aria said. "Just sitting."
"Not that. Everything else. The Luna training, the pack meetings, trying to fit in." Kael moved closer, and Aria's heart started beating faster despite everything. "You're trying to become someone you're not."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Everyone expects me to be a good Luna."
"I don't."
The words hung in the air between them. Aria looked at him, confused.
"Then what do you expect from me?"
"I expect you to figure out what really happened at that river ten years ago," Kael said. "Before someone else gets hurt."
"I told you, I don't remember—"
"Then remember harder." His voice took on that dangerous edge again. "Because whatever power you used two weeks ago, it's getting stronger. The pack elders are scared, Aria. And scared werewolves do stupid things."
Before Aria could ask what he meant, urgent howling came from the forest beyond the pack house. It wasn't the normal howl of patrol wolves. This was different. Panicked.
Kael's head snapped toward the sound, his whole body going tense.
"What is that?" Aria asked.
"Trouble." Kael was already moving toward the house. "Stay here."
But Aria followed him anyway. Inside, the pack house was chaos. People were running everywhere, voices shouting over each other.
"Alpha!" Damon appeared, his face grave. "We have a problem. Three of our border guards found something in the eastern territory."
"What kind of something?"
"Bodies, Alpha. Human bodies. And they're marked."
Kael's face went white. "Marked how?"
"Same symbols that were carved into the trees around the Forbidden River ten years ago."
Aria's blood turned to ice. The Forbidden River. The place where everything had gone wrong.
"There's more," Damon continued. "The bodies... they're not fresh. They've been there for years. But something dug them up recently. Something big."
"How many?" Kael asked.
"Seven. All children. All around the same age Aria and her sister were when..." Damon's words trailed off as he noticed Aria standing there.
"When what?" Aria demanded. "When what happened to me and Lyra?"
Nobody answered her. The room had gone completely silent, and everyone was staring at her with a mixture of fear and suspicion.
"Alpha," one of the border guards said, stepping forward. "There's something else. We found this near the bodies."
He held up a small silver bracelet. It was tarnished and dirty, but Aria recognized it instantly. It was hers. The bracelet her father had given her for her seventh birthday. The bracelet she'd been wearing the day she and Lyra went to the river. The bracelet that had disappeared the same day her sister did.
"How is this possible?" Aria whispered. "I lost that bracelet ten years ago."
"Did you?" Kael's voice was deadly quiet. "Or did you leave it there when you buried those children?"
The accusation hit Aria like a physical blow. "What? No! I would never—"
"Seven dead children, all marked with ritual symbols," Kael said, moving closer. "Your bracelet at the scene. And power that can shatter stone and make government agents forget what they saw."
"You think I killed them?" Aria's voice cracked. "You think I'm some kind of monster?"
"I think," Kael said, his golden eyes burning into hers, "that you're exactly what that red-eyed man said you were. The last of a bloodline that sacrifices children for power."
"That's not true!"
But as the words left her mouth, images flashed through Aria's mind. Dark water. Screaming voices. The taste of copper in her mouth. And Lyra's terrified face as something dragged her under the surface. Something that might have been Aria herself.
"Storm," she whispered to her wolf. "Tell me I didn't do this. Tell me I'm not a killer."
But for the first time since they'd bonded, Storm was completely silent.
And in that silence, Aria realized that everyone in the room—including Kael—was looking at her like she was the monster they'd always suspected she was.
Because maybe she was.