Ethan’s POV“Aria!” I jogged down the road after her. I had no idea what I’d done wrong, but the heat in my chest urged me to find her, to make it right. I couldn’t lose her. Not after what we’d just shared. Whatever attraction had existed between us before had magnified.Or it had for me, anyway. Aria had run off. What if I’d hurt her? What if I’d upset her? I couldn’t bear the thought of either. She had to be okay.If only we could go back in time. I wanted to be holding her again, kissing her again. Her face had felt so delicate between my large hands, her lips so soft against mine. She’d tasted of wine and desire, her body warm and pliant, her cheeks flushed and rosy. I’d never seen anyone so beautiful.Her nails had left tiny welts in my shoulders. Just thinking about it had my muscles clenching. Kissing Aria had been like nothing I’d experienced before – or, at least, not for a very long time.My chest ached, but in a good way. In a mate bond sort of way.Sterling whined. ‘She
Aurora’s POV“Nobody can hear you,” Dominic said, his voice full of glee. “Make as much noise as you like, gorgeous. It won’t help – but I do enjoy hearing it.”The problem with being a doctor was that I was good at calculations, especially when it came to matters of life or death. I could see, clear as day, just how much my chances of survival decreased with every passing second, with every stab and slice of the stake.My wounds throbbed and pulsed and stung. Warm blood dripped down both arms, down my cheeks, following the line of my jaw and the curve down to my neck. I could smell it in the air: my own blood, dizzying my head.He lifted the stake again. Splinters dug into the soft skin of my inner arm, just above my elbow. The blunt tip of the stake pierced my arm, carving a long line down to my wrist.I gritted my teeth, unwilling to let so much as a whimper escape after what he’d said. I wouldn’t give this sadistic bastard the satisfaction. “Aw, don’t be like that. Look, I’ll tr
Ethan’s POVIn the distance, I heard Aria scream.‘Run!’ I snarled at Sterling – but he was already sprinting, his ears pinned flat back to his head, his teeth bared.My chest burst open. Whatever connected us – the mate bond, if it could be possible, if it could be that, if it were some sort of second chance bond – roared to life, but it couldn’t find her. It was like trying to walk through a door, only for it to slam shut in my face.‘I can feel the tether,’ puffed Sterling, ‘but I can’t feel her wolf. It’s like she doesn’t exist.’I could barely hear him. My emotions were a rush of blood, pounding in my ears, in my head. I was nothing but the erratic beat of Sterling’s paws against the forest floor, nothing but the crunch of twigs and the slush of leaves underfoot, nothing but my racing, raging heart and the too-fast huff of air in and out of his lungs.‘We’re so sure she’s hiding something,’ Sterling went on. I focused on his steady voice, on the lilt of unease lurking within it.
Ethan’s POVI swallowed hard. The knife pricked my throat. Droplets of blood soaked into my fur.“That’s it,” the woman cooed. As she stepped into the light, finally letting me see her face, Dominic Butcher slammed the stake into Aria’s chest.Everything happened very fast then.I saw long blonde hair. Green eyes. Full lips. A dusting of freckles over her small, straight nose. A delicate beauty mark under her eye.Aurora. The woman holding me back was Aurora, but I could barely spare a glance for my not-so-dead ex-wife. Not when Aria was screaming, howling; the sounds she was making weren’t even human anymore. It was a nightmare, that scream, the noise of a life being stolen by the shadows.I let my throat get cut as I shoved Aurora aside. It couldn’t be Selene because it didn’t sound like Selene, and because Selene was in Berlin, but then again… it couldn’t be Aurora either. Aurora was dead. But the woman looked just like her as she flailed to regain her balance. Taking control of
Ethan’s POVThere was nothing I could do – but that didn’t mean there was nothing Sterling could.In a sudden burst he shifted out, taking control as I fell apart. He tore through the four men holding me like a knife through butter, twisting as he slammed into the first two, sliding his claws across their throats before turning to take down the others.They fell like toy soldiers. Their heads rolled off their necks as they hit the ground. One man’s hand twitched, then went still.But it was too little too late.The knife pierced Aria’s chest. I screamed into Sterling’s head. It hurt too much for me to wonder why it hurt so much.Sterling launched himself at Dominic. For his part, Butcher didn’t look remotely bothered by the beheadings of four of his cronies. He just side-stepped Sterling’s attack and, very calmly, said, “If you kill me, you won’t get her back.”‘He’s lying,’ I snarled. ‘Kill him.’‘We can’t take that chance.’Dominic grinned as we faltered. He knew he’d won. Wiping hi
Ethan’s POV“Aria,” I rasped. My voice broke. In an instant I was at her side, my hands on her face, on her shoulders, brushing dried blood off her exposed neck. She looked so small, so fragile, and I just wanted to hold her, to help her, to make it all better. To make all of this go away.But I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do.I couldn’t bring her back. Aria would never be okay again.I splintered. My soul shattered into a million tiny pieces. Wilting beside her on the stone slab, I cradled her too cold, too still body. It didn’t feel real. She couldn’t be dead, couldn’t be gone…She was, though. I inched back, crying silently, moving to untie her wrists and ankles. Her body was heavy, the heaviness of limp, unyielding muscles. The heaviness of death. I choked on my own tears, my vision too blurry for me to see properly as I lifted her up reverently, clutching her to my chest for a moment before I laid her carefully on the grass.The weight of what had happened started to se
Aurora’s POVI was vaguely aware of being carried beneath a beautiful canopy of autumn trees. Through barely-open eyes I watched, mesmerised, as the blur of orange and red swept overhead. Thin cracks of wintry blue and brown branches criss-crossed the leaves. For a moment, I wondered if this was the afterlife. It seemed too striking to be earth. My heart was full, so full I feared it might burst, and the pain I’d felt had faded away, leaving behind a sense of weightlessness and buoyancy in its wake.There was a voice in this world, too, a constant, low murmur. I couldn’t quite make out the words, but the sound of his voice was a comfort to me. “You’re going to be okay, Aria, I promise. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. He’s dead. Dominic Butcher is dead. I couldn’t let him live, not after he hurt you. I will never let anyone hurt you again.”I snuggled in closer to his chest – then cried out, as moving tore at my wounds. The pain flared back to life, a burning crescendo o
Aurora’s POVI stared at Ethan helplessly. He knew I was his mate. He knew I was his mate, which meant he had to know who I really was – and yet he’d spent all night searching for me in the woods, a fact that still made my heart squeeze like a fist. If he knew I was Aurora Everheart, not Aria Black, then surely he would’ve left me to die.It was what he’d done before, after all.A frown pinched his brow. Slowly, he lifted a palm to cradle my face. “You don’t think so?” he muttered, glancing away.“I…”“It’s fine.” He stood up abruptly, pulling away from me. Cold washed over me in his absence, a chill that settled deep in my bones. I shivered. “I wasn’t sure, I just thought…” he trailed off.I sat up straighter, winced, then said, “What did you think, Ethan?” as gently as I could.It didn’t seem like he knew the truth. If he thought we were mates somehow, I had to exploit that. It would make getting him to fall for me even easier. Even if knowing I was going to destroy him made guilt p