"Ivy."
I look up and Aiden Blake's standing in my doorway.
Not swaggering like his brother used to. Quiet. Worse. Like he's been planning this for weeks and now he's here, three feet away, and Rex goes still as a knife beside me.
"We need to talk."
His voice hasn't changed. Still soft. Still careful. Like I'm something fragile he's afraid to break.
Rex moves so fast I don't see it. One second he's next to me, the next he's got Aiden by the collar, slamming him back against the door. Glass rattles. "You've got balls showing up here, Blake."
"I'm not him." Aiden doesn't fight. His hands stay loose, palms open. His eyes find mine over Rex's shoulder. "I'm not my brother."
"No?" Rex's grip tightens. "Then why the hell are you here?"
"Because she's gonna die if we don't fix this."
The words hit like stones in deep water.
My wolf stirs under my skin. Restless. Curious. Wrong. She's been asleep for three years and now she won't shut up.
Rex lets go. Steps back but doesn't leave my side. "Talk. Fast."
Aiden straightens his jacket. His gaze stays on me and I hate how much it feels like being seen. Really seen. Not the broken thing his brother made. Not the cursed girl everyone whispers about.
Just me.
"The curse wasn't supposed to work this way," he says. "Damian screwed it up."
"Screwed it up how?"
My voice stays steady. Barely.
"He meant to bind you to him. Make it so no other Alpha could touch you without dying." Aiden's jaw works. "But he rushed the ritual. Used the wrong moon phase. Now it's not just touching you that triggers it—it's the mate bond itself."
Rex swears under his breath.
I wrap my arms around myself. The shop feels too small. Too bright. The espresso machine hisses behind the counter and I want to throw something at it.
"So anyone who's my fated mate dies if they try to mark me."
"Not dies." Aiden takes a step closer. Rex growls low but Aiden ignores him. "The curse kills the wolf first. Slowly. Then it takes the human side. You saw what's happening to Cain."
I did. The black lines crawling up his neck. The way his hands shook when he touched me.
"There's more." Aiden's voice drops. "The curse is feeding on something. Your bloodline. That's why your wolf's been sealed all this time—someone didn't want anyone finding out what you really are."
My stomach drops.
"What I really am?"
"I don't know yet." He sounds frustrated. Genuine. "But Damian does. That's why he cursed you. Not because you rejected him—because he found out what your mother was hiding."
The shop door rattles.
Hard.
All three of us turn.
Cain's standing outside. One hand pressed flat against the glass. The black lines have spread to his jaw now. His eyes meet mine through the window and even from here I can see the fever in them.
The determination.
He's not leaving. He's waiting.
"Shit." Rex moves toward the door. "He's too far gone. He'll try to mark you tonight."
"Let him try." Aiden's voice goes cold. "I'll stop him."
"You?" Rex rounds on him. "You're Blake's little brother. You're nothing."
Something flickers across Aiden's face. Pain, maybe. Or anger buried so deep it's calcified into something harder.
"I'm also her mate."
The room goes silent.
My wolf slams against the inside of my ribs. Not angry. Curious. Reaching.
"No." I hear myself say it. "No, that's not possible. I can't have three—"
"You can if your bloodline allows it." Aiden's eyes never leave mine. "And yours does. That's what Damian found. That's what he tried to lock away."
Rex stares at him now. Really looking.
"You felt it. The bond."
"The second I walked in." Aiden's hands curl into fists. "But I'm not touching her. I'm not marking her. I'm not doing a damn thing until we break this curse."
"Why?" The word comes out sharper than I mean. "Why do you care?"
His smile's sad. Broken around the edges.
"Because I loved you before my brother ever saw you. And I watched him destroy you because I was too much of a coward to stop him."
Something cracks open in my chest. Old and buried and I don't want to look at it.
The door explodes inward.
Not Cain.
Two wolves I've never seen before—big, scarred, wearing Damian's pack colors on their jackets. Enforcers. The kind he sends when he wants someone hurt.
The first one grins at me.
"Ivy Gray. You're coming home."
"Like hell." Rex shifts before I can blink. Not full wolf—his control's too good for that—but enough. Claws. Fangs. Eyes gone gold and feral.
The enforcer pulls a knife.
Silver.
Aiden moves faster than either of them. He doesn't shift. Doesn't need to. One second he's standing next to me, the next he's disarmed the first enforcer and put him through the front window.
Glass everywhere.
The second enforcer lunges for me.
My wolf surges up and this time I can't stop her. The seal rips wider and power floods through me—hot and wild and so much bigger than it should be. The enforcer flies backward into the counter. The espresso machine shatters.
Coffee and blood and I can't tell which is which.
Rex catches me before I fall.
"Ivy. Ivy, look at me."
I can't. My vision's going white at the edges. My wolf's awake and she's angry and she remembers things I don't. Things the seal buried.
Aiden's kneeling in the broken glass, breathing hard, blood on his knuckles. The enforcers aren't moving.
Outside, Cain's still watching.
Smiling.
"We need to move." Rex's voice sounds far away. "They'll send more."
"No." Aiden stands slowly. Looks at me. "We need answers first."
He pulls something from his pocket. A photograph. Old. Faded. He holds it out and I take it with shaking hands.
A woman. Dark hair like mine. Standing in front of a burned-out building.
On the back, someone's written a single word in cramped handwriting.
Lunaris.
My mother's handwriting.
"That's the name she died hiding," Aiden says quietly. "It's the name sealed inside your blood. And every Alpha in three territories is looking for it."
The photograph slips from my fingers.
Because I know that name.
I don't know how. I don't know why.
But somewhere deep in the place where my wolf lives, in the part of me the seal locked away—
I know exactly what it means.
And it's so much worse than a curse.