Everything about that woman had become white and small, doll-like. The hands, the tiny fingernails, even the eyelashes. Her skin looked like polished porcelain and Aidan could almost swear he could see her glow, with that special opaque light the moon had. Or maybe it was simply because she was his.

“You are my Moon...” he murmured caressing her face, and suddenly the man, the heir to the throne, the Alpha protector of Casthiel's lineage emerged in him.

She looked helpless and innocent, but that was the operative word: “looked”. If she really had been, her father would have never locked her in that cell in the Watchtower. It was a disgrace that after so many centuries of solitude, the Alpha's destined mate was precisely an enemy of his crown.

And yet he needed and desired her, his whole spirit insisted on claiming her, on possessing her. It was rightly said that the bond between two mates was the most powerful bond among the lycans, and now Aidan was experiencing it firsthand, because regardless of how hard his rational side tried, he could not resist it.

“This is part of my curse, isn't it?” He laughed bitterly as he asked the Goddess, but he didn't expect a single sign from her, he had never had one.

The girl slowly opened her eyes and for the first time seemed to notice him. Her gaze was full of pain and fear, and Aidan could sense each of those feelings as if they were his own just by looking at her.

Her body trembled, tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to crawl backwards on her hands, as if she were a wounded animal.

“Calm down...” Aidan bent down and placed both palms open on the ground in front of her feet. Human hands, as a symbol that he did not intend to change or hurt her. “You are safe with me... be calm.”

The girl looked around, as if trying to guess where she was and what was happening, she seemed completely lost and scared.

“What is your name?” he asked her, but her lips only trembled, without making a sound. All that silver probably drove her crazy already, he thought sadly. “I'm Aidan... you're safe with me... Is your name Raksha?” He saw her pursed her lips and shook her head. “No? OK, Raksha is the she-wolf... what's your name?”

The girl looked at him, still hesitantly, but finally murmured:

“Rhiannon... my name is Rhiannon.”

“Rhiannon.” Aidan couldn't help smiling. It was a beautiful name. “Come with me, please.”

Please! The Alpha couldn't remember the last time he had said that word, but he held out one of his hands with the palm up in invitation.

“Come.”

Rhiannon looked at that hand with uncertainty. Behind him, dark and fierce, the silhouette of the Watchtower stood out, and she was out of it because of him. She tried to overcome her fear and reached out for him, with a hesitant movement; and just as their fingers touched she felt a current of relief sweep over her.

She couldn't explain it, she had never had anything like it, and she knew he was feeling it too. It was like a wave, a tide of safety, tranquility and pleasure, it was as if her heart had finally found the only place in the world where she could be happy, and that place was where they belonged to each other.

It was him!

He was her mate!

At last!

Rhiannon threw herself forward into his arms without another word, and Aidan met her with a desperate gesture. He held her as tightly as if it were a dream, as if he feared to lose her for another half millennium, as if she were not real; and he felt her weep bitterly against his breast as she clung to his back.

“Sir, that witch must be put back in the cell!” cried the guard behind him, unable to comprehend the scene he was witnessing.

“Don't call her that!” Aidan growled, furious.

Rhiannon flinched at the sound of that voice, and her body shrank back against Aidan's. In a single second the Alpha felt himself filled with pain, terror, anguish... and worst of all, they were not his own. All those feelings were consuming her partner, and that filled him with a desperation and rage he had never known before.

“This woman isn't going anywhere until I say otherwise!” he declared in a harsh voice.

“But didn't you see what she just did? That's sorcery!” exclaimed the soldier, getting the Alpha out of his senses and who stood up to confront him.

“Open your eyes and look around for once!” he screamed. “You guard a prison reinforced with ancient magic, you subdue your wolf using ancient magic, that crap is what we're made of! What the hell surprises you?!”

“But she... and the she-wolf...” the guard stammered, looking at Rhiannon, who was still on the ground hugging her knees. “She's a prisoner!”

“I'll decide that!” Aidan hissed hoarsely, subjecting his wolf to a partial transformation, but apparently, there was someone the guard feared far more than him.

“She is a prisoner of King Caerbhall! She must be returned to her cell!”

Aidan could hear Rhiannon's groan of terror perfectly clear when she heard her father's name, right before she crawled to her feet and ran off into the forest.

“She's leaving!” the guard snarled, subjecting his wolf to a full transformation and rushing after the girl.

But he didn't make it a hundred yards before jaws closed on one of his hind legs, dragging him first, then sending him flying through the air, and throwing him against the trunk of a tree.

Blocking the path the girl had used to escape was a black wolf of gigantic size, almost as big as a grown man and visibly angry. It had bright silver irises, and its single growl caused the guard to shrink in on himself, forcing him out of the transformation.

“Have you forgotten who I am, the blood that runs through my veins?!” roared Aidan, also shifting back and lifting him up by the neck against a tree. “You abandon your brothers in battle, and stand against your superior! How dare you disobey me?!”

The lycan kicked, trying to get away, barely getting any air into his lungs.

“The king... the king must know!”

But Aidan was quite aware of what that meant, and his father was the type to order once and never back down; if he had put Rhiannon in a cell before, he would do it again no matter what.

“The king will know what I choose to let him know,” he declared angrily.

“No... we must tell him... that witch—” He couldn't even finish the sentence. Many things were able to infuriate the Alpha, but definitely offending the only woman the Goddess had made especially for him was the worst of all. His claws grew all at once piercing the guard’ throat, whose eyes widened in shock and fright just before losing all sparkle of life.

“I warned you not to call her that,” he hissed, watching him fall dead at his feet.

He put his wolf through a complete transformation so he could follow Rhiannon's trail, and strode into the forest without a single drop of remorse for what he had just done, as he called out to the only wolf he wanted by his side at a time like that.

His howl was long and piercing, and seemed to reverberate off every stone in the forest.

Less than thirty miles away, Brennan's paws dug into the damp earth of a watercourse. He raised his ears and heard that which was a command, a call and everything at once. One growl made the Silent Guard turn back towards Glan Conwy, towards the same place through which they had entered the forest.

The traces were tangled and scattered, and they had failed to get anything interesting from them; but apparently, the Alpha had indeed found in the Watchtower something worthy of that call.

His whole body lunged forward and seemed to fly over the grass, dodging trees and sniffing every few seconds to find Aidan's trail. He found it mixed in with another, so he didn't bother to shift as he approached cautiously.

His Alpha motioned for him to stay hidden, but Brennan's heart throbbed the very second he saw where he was headed. On the same crag where they had seen the white she-wolf a few hours ago, against the wall of the dark stone, huddled an equally pale woman. She gave off that same musty smell of the cells the prisoners always had, but the Beta knew she was no ordinary prisoner.

For a moment he was tempted to step between Aidan and her, but a strange feeling came over him. He didn't know if it was the scents, the soft expression in the Alpha's eyes, or the strange glow coming off the girl's body, but he was sure Aidan was seconds away from falling at her feet.

“Rhiannon...” he murmured, approaching her slowly but without coming out of the partial transformation. “You mustn't be afraid of me, child. It's me, Aidan.”

She shook her head vigorously, her eyes closed.

“I'm not going back...” she moaned in anguish. “I'm not going back there...I'm not—”

“You're not going back, Rhiannon,” Aidan assured her, and she opened her eyes. “You have to trust me. You have to come with me.”

And in the same second that Rhiannon broke away from the rock wall, crying, and threw herself into his arms, Aidan knew that no, he could never get her back to that cell... But what exactly was he going to do with her?