Chapter 5

Nephele's POV

Pain consumed everything.

The rogue Alpha's hands tore at what remained of my dress, his claws leaving bloody tracks across my ribs. My star-shaped birthmark burned like molten silver, each pulse sending lightning through my broken body.

"Such a pretty little star," he growled, breath reeking of rotted meat. "Let's see what makes you so special."

My blood pooled on the cave floor, glowing faintly silver where it touched stone. The same eerie light from my escape, but stronger now.

I tried to fight. Tried to scream. But strength had bled out with everything else.

Through the haze of agony, something strange began happening. Images flashed behind my eyes—not hallucinations, but something more real than the cave around me.

An endless ice field under starlight. A figure with platinum hair, broad shoulders draped in frost-touched armor.

The scent hit me across impossible distance—winter pine and raw power that made my dying senses sing with recognition.

I know that scent.

A massive wolf materialized beside the distant figure. Gold and white fur, intelligent eyes that seemed to look directly at me through the vision.

The wolf's lips pulled back, revealing ice-sharp fangs. A growl rumbled from its throat—protective, possessive, furious.

But then the growl didn't stop when I closed my eyes.

It continued. Real. Echoing off cave walls.

My eyes snapped open. The sound was coming from outside.

The rogue Alpha heard it too, his head whipping toward the entrance with sudden terror. "Impossible. We killed every wolf in this territory."

Temperature plummeted. Our breath misted in air that turned arctic in seconds.

Ice began spreading along the cave walls in perfect spirals.

"What the hell—"

Gold and white fury exploded through the cave entrance.

The wolf from my vision. Real. Magnificent. Deadly.

Massive jaws crushed the rogue Alpha's arm. Bone snapped like kindling. His scream shattered the air as the wolf shook him like a broken toy before flinging him against the stone wall.

Blood painted the cave walls crimson.

Through settling frost, a figure stepped into the cave—and my failing vision caught glimpses of winter made flesh. Platinum hair catching moonlight. A face carved from ice and shadow. Eyes that burned like frozen stars.

He moved like death itself. Beautiful. Terrifying. Inevitable.

The remaining rogues scrambled for weapons, for escape, for mercy.

They found none.

Ice spikes erupted from the ground, piercing through hearts with surgical precision. The last rogue made it three steps toward the exit before frost consumed him from the inside out.

When silence fell, only we remained.

I should have been afraid. This stranger who'd torn apart grown men without breaking a sweat.

Instead, I felt safer than I had in years.

My eyes drifted shut, too heavy to keep open. But I felt him approach—careful steps on frozen stone.

Kaedan's POV

Mine.

The word slammed through me with the force of an avalanche the moment I saw her broken, bleeding body in that cave. Every instinct I possessed roared to life—claim her, mark her, take her away from this nightmare forever.

But she was barely conscious. Dying, maybe. And this wasn't how I'd dreamed of our reunion for four years.

The last rogue's body lay frozen at my feet, his windpipe crushed by my bare hands before the ice claimed him. Around me, five other bodies lay scattered—predators who'd thought they could harm what was mine.

They'd thought wrong.

Skoll padded back to my side, blood staining his golden muzzle. My wolf's fury still burned in his intelligent eyes, but the immediate threats were dead.

Now there was only her.

Even broken and bloodied, she was breathtaking. Dark hair spread across stone like spilled ink, delicate features pale as moonlight. But it was the star-shaped mark on her shoulder that held my attention—pulsing with silver light that matched the frost wolf sigils covering my arms.

Our bond called to each other across the space between us.

Finally.

I approached slowly, afraid that any sudden movement might shatter this moment like glass. She was real. She was here. She was alive.

My hand trembled as I reached out to touch her face.

Ice armor had formed along my knuckles without my permission—deadly spikes that could slice through steel. One wrong move and I'd hurt her worse than her captors had.

I forced the ice to recede, leaving only skin that was too cold, too dangerous for someone so fragile.

"Shh," I whispered, finally letting my fingertips brush her cheek with infinite care. "You're safe now."

Her skin was softer than I'd imagined. Warmer than it should be, given how much blood she'd lost.

"Stay with me, little star," I murmured, unable to stop myself from using the endearment I'd carried for four years. "You're stronger than you know."

Her birthmark pulsed brighter at the nickname, silver light painting patterns on the cave walls. For one heart-stopping moment, her eyelids fluttered like she might wake up, might remember—

Please. Please remember me.

But then her breathing deepened into unconsciousness again.

I could stay. I could be here when she woke, reveal everything. Tell her I was the boy with the apple, that I'd spent four years building an empire just to be worthy of her smile.

But she was too weak. Too vulnerable.

And if Magnus learned about our bond now, he'd use it against her. Use her to destroy me, and everything I'd built to protect her.

Distant howls echoed through the forest—Fidelis and his pack, finally tracking her scent. They'd be here soon.

My chest felt like it was caving in as I forced myself to step back.

She was right here. After four years of searching, of building myself into someone worthy of her, she was finally within reach.

And I was walking away.

Again.

"Soon," I promised her sleeping form, my voice rough with emotions I couldn't contain. "When you're strong enough to stand beside a king instead of behind one."

I turned toward the cave entrance, and every step felt like tearing pieces of my soul away.

Skoll's mental voice carried confusion and concern. "We're leaving her?"

"We have to." The words tasted like ash. "She's not ready."

I'm not ready to risk her life for my own needs.

At the cave mouth, I paused for one last look.

Moonlight painted her unconscious form in silver and shadow. Beautiful. Powerful, even in sleep. Perfect.

And not mine. Not yet.

Maybe not ever, if she couldn't forgive what I'd become in order to deserve her.

The howls were getting closer. Time to disappear back into legend, back into the frost and ice where I belonged.

But I left something behind—ice crystals arranged in a pattern only she would recognize, if she remembered. If she'd kept the apple core I'd given her four years ago.

A promise. A signature. A way for her to find me when she was ready.

Four years ago, I'd walked away because I wasn't strong enough to protect her.

Today, I was walking away because I was too dangerous to keep her safe.

Still a coward. Just a different kind.