Chapter 2 LEAVING

Aria’s POV.

The silence in the clearing was a physical weight, heavier than the humid night air. Leo’s hand remained flat against the bark above my head, boxing me into the rough wood. His chest heaved, a rhythmic rise and fall that pushed his scent into my lungs—cedar, rain, and the dark, musky heat of a wolf who hadn't finished what he started.

It made my stomach twist with a sickening cocktail of desire and humiliation.

"Leo," a sharp voice cut through the haze.

Jessica. I’d almost forgotten she was there, a silent observer to my shame.

Leo didn’t look back. His eyes were fixed on mine, dilated and predatory, scanning my face as if searching for a reason to snap. Slowly, he dropped his arm, but he didn't move away. He stayed close enough that I could feel the radiation of his body heat.

"Go home, Jessica."

I flinched. It wasn’t a request; it was a Beta’s command, vibrating with a frequency that made my very bones want to obey.

"Are you kidding?" Jessica stepped into the moonlight, clutching her torn tank top. Her lips were swollen, her hair a bird’s nest of silver-lit tangles. She glared at me with enough venom to dissolve bone. "You’re stopping because she showed up? The wolfless stray?"

"I said go home," Leo repeated, his voice dropping an octave into a dangerous rumble. "Tonight is over."

Jessica’s jaw snapped shut. She shot me one last look of pure loathing—the look of a wolf who knew she was higher on the food chain—and shifted. The sound of cracking bones and shifting muscle filled the air, a wet, visceral noise that always made my human skin crawl. A russet-colored wolf took her place and vanished into the tree line without a backward glance.

Leo let out a rough, ragged sigh. He grabbed his discarded shirt, pulling it on and hiding the muscles I had just seen her clinging to.

"You have a death wish, Aria?" He stepped closer, his shadow swallowing me whole. "You know what lives in these woods. You know you can't defend yourself."

"I had to see the doctor," I stammered, clutching my bag like a shield. "Max knew."

Leo let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Max is an idiot for letting you roam. That'll be a great comfort when a rogue is decorating the bushes with your intestines." He didn't wait for a reply. He grabbed my elbow—not gently—and began hauling me toward the estate. "Move. I’m walking you back."

The walk was agonizing. Leo was a step ahead, his body tense, in full enforcer mode. As we reached the servant’s entrance, a flickering halogen light caught him in stark relief.

I stopped dead.

There, on the tanned column of his neck, was a mark. A dark, angry purple bruise. A brand. Jessica had claimed him with her teeth, and the sight of it felt like a physical blow to my chest.

He isn't yours, I reminded myself, the words a bitter mantra. He was never yours.

"Coast is clear," Leo whispered, turning back. He caught me staring at the mark. His hand went up, thumb covering the bruise, his eyes narrowing. "Don't look at things you don't understand, Aria. Get inside."

He didn't wait for me to climb. He grabbed my waist, his large hands nearly meeting around my middle, and hoisted me up to my bedroom windowsill as if I weighed nothing. For a heartbeat, his fingers lingered, pressing into my skin through the thin fabric of my shirt.

"Go," he breathed. "And stay put."

I tumbled onto my carpet, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I thought I was safe—until the bedside lamp clicked on.

"You're late."

Max was sitting in the corner, his face cast in deep shadows. "I saw you on the sensors. I looped the footage before Father saw it." He stood up, and for the first time in my life, I saw a flicker of the Alpha he was born to be. "Do you have any idea how fragile you are, Aria? You are breakable."

The word cut deeper than any of the Luna’s insults. Breakable. A glass doll in a world of sledgehammers.

"I have to learn, Max," I whispered. "Dr. Elias says I have a gift for the medicine. It’s the only thing I have."

Max’s expression softened, the hard Alpha edge crumbling. He pulled me into a fierce, desperate hug. "I know. But I can't protect you out there. And starting tomorrow... I won't be here to protect you in here, either."

I pulled back, panic rising. "What do you mean?"

"The Pack Alliance patrol. My orders came in. I leave in two days."

The floor felt like it was tilting. "Two days? For how long?"

"A year. Maybe longer."

"Max, no." My voice broke. "The Luna... without you here, she’ll find a way to get rid of me. I won't survive a year alone."

"You won't be alone," Max said, his voice turning grimly serious. "I’ve made an arrangement. A personal guardian to watch over you. Someone the Luna won't dare to cross."

My heart did a traitorous little flip. Leo. It had to be Leo.

The next morning, the dining room felt like a courtroom.

Alpha Damien read his tablet in silence. Luna Selene sliced her grapefruit with the precision of a surgeon. I sat at the far end of the long mahogany table, picking at my food and trying to be a ghost.

"Dr. Elias made a formal request this morning," the Alpha said, his voice booming in the quiet room. "He wants to take on an official apprentice. He claims he can no longer manage the clinic's inventory alone."

I looked up, hope blooming like a wildflower in a graveyard. "Father? I know the distillations. I’ve been studying the texts. I can do it."

"It’s a logical move," Max added, his eyes pleading with our father. "She knows the work. It gives her a role. A rank."

"A rank?" Luna Selene’s laugh was like shattering glass. She set her spoon down, her cold blue eyes fixing on me. "Damien, you cannot be serious. The position of Healer is sacred. It requires a connection to the wolf. To the earth."

She leaned back, her lip curling in a sneer. "Imagine our warriors—our elite—bleeding out and having to rely on her? A girl who can't even shift? It’s a mockery of our traditions. It’s an insult to the blood."

"I can learn!" I blurted out, my face burning.

"Silence," the Alpha snapped. The power in his voice made the silverware rattle. He looked at me, his eyes cold and clinical. "The Luna is right. Our image matters. Giving a bastard a title is a mistake I won't make."

My heart sank into my stomach.

"However," Damien continued, "Elias does need a pair of hands. You will work in the clinic, Aria. But not as an apprentice."

"Then what?" I whispered.

"As a cleaner," the Alpha stated. "You will scrub the floors. You will wash the linens. You will organize the waste. You are a maid, Aria. Nothing more."

The Luna smiled—a slow, victorious curve of her lips. She leaned over as she rose to leave, her breath cold against my ear. "Know your place, little girl. On your knees, scrubbing away the messes your betters make."

I sat there, paralyzed, as they swept out of the room. A maid. I wasn't a healer; I was a janitor for the people who hated me.

I grabbed my bag and bolted, blinded by the hot sting of tears. I rounded the corner into the main hallway, moving too fast to see the shadow waiting there.

I slammed directly into a wall of solid, unyielding muscle.

Strong hands clamped onto my upper arms, steadying me. The contact sent a jolt of electricity through my skin—a spark so violent it made my breath hitch.

"Steady," a deep voice rumbled.

I looked up, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.

It was Leo.

He was in his full Beta uniform, black and silver, looking like a god of war. But he wasn't looking at me with his usual annoyance. His gaze was heavy, intense, and terrifyingly focused.

"I was looking for you," he said, his grip on my arms tightening just a fraction.

"Why?" I choked out. "I'm just going to the clinic to... to scrub the floors."

Leo’s jaw tightened, a muscle leaping in his cheek. He glanced toward the dining room where the Alpha and Luna had been, then looked back at me. His eyes flared with a sudden, golden heat that made my knees weak.

"Max is gone in forty-eight hours," Leo said, his voice dropping to a low, possessive growl that sent shivers down my spine. "And he’s signed over your protection to me. That means from now on... you belong to me."

He stepped closer, his chest brushing mine.

"And I don't let people touch what's mine."