[POV: Dominic]
I found him by the pond—just as I knew I would.
Evan sat at the edge of the water, knees drawn up, shoulders hunched. The light filtering through the trees painted silver across his back, catching the damp fabric of his shirt where sweat had soaked through. But there was no softness in him. No calm.
Just tension and rage. The scent of it curled in the air like smoke—metallic and sharp, the kind of fury that lived in the blood rather than the brain.
Good.
I stepped lightly through the undergrowth, careful not to break the quiet with anything but my presence. He didn't turn—didn't need to. He knew it was me before I spoke. The muscles along the back of his neck tightened, his hands curling harder around his own knees.
"Funny," I said, voice smooth as silk, "how still water can hide such dangerous things underneath."
No answer.
I moved closer, stepping just beside him, letting my gaze drift across the pond. "You're angry," I murmured.
His jaw ticked, but still he didn't speak.
"I understand," I continued, crouching beside him until our shoulders were nearly level. "He humiliated you."
Evan's fists tightened, knuckles going white, veins standing out across the backs of his hands.
"After everything you did. All the loyalty. All the silent little sacrifices. And in the end, he crawled into another man's bed and let him claim him."
"Don't," he snapped, voice rough.
I smiled. There it was—that crack in the wall I'd been waiting for.
"He used you, Evan. Just like he always used me. And now? He'll get to play the tragic little mate, whispering lies about how he survived us while Draven parades him around like a prize."
"He made his choice," he said tightly.
I leaned in, letting my voice dip low enough that the words felt like secrets shared between conspirators. "But what if it wasn't his to make? What if the Moon Goddess never intended for him to have both power and peace?"
He glanced at me finally—eyes shadowed with something dark and barely held in check. The irises had shifted, the pupils blown wide, and behind them I could see the faintest amber glow of something feral pressing against the surface.
I saw Rau behind them waiting and starving.
"I know you feel it," I whispered. "The shift. The wrongness. You think this is about heartbreak, Evan? This is betrayal. Atlas chose them. Over us. Over you."
"He was never mine," he muttered.
I laughed softly. "Not yet."
He turned fully then, the motion sharp, his jaw set hard. "What are you talking about?"
I met his gaze and let him see every drop of truth I wanted him to believe—nothing more, nothing less.
"They're a threat now. The Crimson Fang. Draven. Atlas. They stand between us and the future we were meant to have. You feel it, don't you? That hunger? That need to take back control? That isn't weakness, Evan—it's your strength waking up."
"You want me to hurt him."
"I want you to survive him," I snapped, letting genuine heat bleed into my voice, eyes blazing.
"The Atlas you knew is gone. He's part of them now. He'll bear Draven's mark, stand beside him at every council and campaign, and lead his warriors into battle. And when he turns on us? On you? You'll wish you had ended it when you had the chance."
His breathing was ragged, chest rising and falling in uneven surges. A vein throbbed at his temple.
"I don't want him dead."
"You want him gone," I said gently, the way you'd speak to a wounded animal before you put it down. "And you want Draven gone more. Don't you?"
A long silence passed as the pond sat still and the trees didn't move. Even the wind had gone quiet, as if the forest itself was holding its breath.
Then Evan's nod came—slow and reluctant. A single dip of his chin that cost him more than any blow ever had. I could taste the war inside him, the last threads of the man he'd wanted to be fraying against the thing Rau was trying to make him become. And I knew it was time to end it.
"There's a way," I whispered, voice like a secret wrapped in silk. "A bond. Not like the Moon's but darker and stronger. A ritual, old as the blood in our veins."
His brow furrowed, but he didn't back away. His body stayed rigid, coiled, caught between the impulse to run and the hunger to stay.
"With it, we'd be bound. You and I as Allies. Partners in war and vengeance. Our strength would multiply. Your wolf—Rau—he would rise, powerful and unchained. And I—"
I smiled, letting it spread slow and deliberate across my face, "—would finally become what I was always meant to be."
"An Alpha," he said flatly.
"The King," I corrected.
He stared at me, searching for lies. But I gave him none. Only what he already wanted to hear—the story where his pain had a purpose and his rage had a direction.
"What do I have to do?"
I reached into the folds of my cloak, retrieving a small silver dagger. The blade shimmered with something older than steel—runes etched along the flat, catching the moonlight with a faint, oily iridescence.
"We bleed together," I said, voice hushed. "We speak the vow. We bind ourselves in purpose and fury. And then—we take back what was stolen."
He took the blade. His fingers closed around the hilt, and I watched the last flicker of hesitation die behind his eyes.
We stood at the water's edge, moonlight above, silence around. The pond reflected us both—two dark figures standing at the boundary between what they were and what they were about to become.
I raised my palm. "Blood for blood," I began, and drew the blade across my skin. The cut was shallow, precise, and the blood welled dark and immediate.
Evan mirrored me, slicing a line across his own hand without flinching.
"Fire for fire," I said, watching the blood drip from both our palms, black in the moonlight.
"Bone for bone," he echoed, voice dark and steady.
"May vengeance be our bond," I whispered, and pressed our palms together, sealing the ritual.
His blood was hot against mine, the heat of it startling, and where our wounds met I felt something ancient stir—something that had nothing to do with the Moon Goddess and everything to do with the old, hungry magic that existed before her light.
The air shifted instantly. The forest shuddered around us, branches creaking, leaves trembling without wind.
Magic coiled around us like a storm pulled from the earth. I felt it thrum through my veins, violent and intoxicating, flooding every capillary with dark electricity.
Evan's head snapped back, his mouth open in a silent roar as Rau surged through him—no longer pressed behind a wall, no longer pacing. Unleashed.
When his eyes opened, they were glowing gold.
And finally he looked at me not with doubt, but with hunger.