The first attack hit before Aria Vale could decide whether Kael Blackwood was protector or captor. Claws tore through the sealed door. Kael Blackwood shifted between her and the attacker, taking a silver blade across his ribs while he forced a path into the old service tunnels.
They escaped with the sealed record but not the evidence that proved who had signed it. Inside a guarded room, Kael Blackwood traced its payments and erased seals. Every path led back to someone Aria Vale had defended for years.
Kael Blackwood placed a contract beside the evidence. For thirty days they would appear united, share information, and never move without security. In return, he would give her access to the one archive capable of proving the royal bite on her shoulder proves she is the last living heir to the Moon Throne. The final clause was strangely specific: neither of them could pretend the attraction between them was part of the agreement.
She laughed once, without humor. “You wrote a rule against falling for you?”
“I wrote a rule against lying about it.”
Their first move together became another ambush. A messenger slipped Aria Vale a key engraved with the date of her greatest loss. It opened a private box containing photographs of Kael Blackwood meeting the person who had arranged her pack branded her a traitor and left her beyond the ward stones during a blood moon.
She pressed the photographs against his chest. “Tell me why I should not leave.”
He did not deny the meeting. He stepped close enough that anger became heat and covered her hand with his over the evidence. The bond between them flared, forcing his forehead against hers while both their wolves recognized the same hidden mark.
“I went there to stop what happened to you,” he said. “I failed. I will not fail twice.”
The lights died before she could decide whether to believe him. A black mirror filled with the face of the person Aria Vale trusted most.
“You have until midnight,” the caller said. “The royal bite on her shoulder proves she is the last living heir to the Moon Throne. Ask Kael Blackwood what else he is hiding. Then decide which one of you I kill first.”