Randel roared in pain, clutching his arm. “Caesaria, Arwyn, get out of here, Now.” He keeled over. Even though the Alignment wasn’t over, he slowly began to morph back into wolf form.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Caesaria held me back from going toward him. “Ar, you can’t! He’s turning back, it’s over. It’s over.”

I glared at Darius. “Why are you here?”

Darius kept his bow trained on Randel. “Because I couldn’t find you. And Raydir came to me saying if anything went wrong, he wanted me to have this.” He tossed me an empty bottle which, with one whiff, I knew was more wolf suppressor.

“He lied to me,” I muttered to myself, my heartbeat increasing. “Ray said he wouldn’t say anything.” The wolf suppressor was supposed to be for me and Caesaria only, so how the hell did Darius get his hands on it?

“That’s the least of our worries right now, Ar,” Caesaria said, tugging at my arm. Her blue eyes pleaded with me. “We have to go, now. You and Darius can hash things out later, but we have to leave.”

Randel growled, limping on his front left paw. For a moment, I had forgotten he was still there, his eyes filled with pain. Then he bounded away—albeit slowly—into the woods.

“Darius, lower your bow,” I demanded, keeping my eyes locked on him. There was no way he was going to hurt Randel. Not on my watch. “He’s gone. And we need to get back to the cabins.”

The wind picked up, whistling through the trees. The flowers around Delia’s grave began to scatter. The Alignment was well under way.

He obeyed, but didn’t take his gaze off of the spot that Randel had vacated. “We’re not done with this conversation.”

“Like hell we’re not.”

“Okay, you two. Let’s just get back to the bottom before you rip each other’s heads off,” Caesaria pacified.

With fury ignited inside of me, I used the last of my energy to summon three waves to carry us down the waterfall. For Cae and myself, we easily floated down to the grassy bank. My feet landed swiftly upon the ground and Caesaria teetered next to me. Darius, on the other hand, had a less fun ride down the falls, landing in the water.

He sputtered and coughed when he came back up for air, swimming to the edge and hoisting himself up. His now-wet shirt clung to his chest. I tried not to fixate on how it emphasized his abs hidden beneath the fabric.

You’re mad at him, I told myself. Stay focused, dammit.

He betrayed you, another voice whispered. You hate him right now. He’s a menace.

Darius smirked.

“Don’t,” I said. “I know you can sense my thoughts…but just don’t tonight. Okay?”

“Um, maybe I should let the two of you work out this lovers spat alone,” Caesaria said, backing away slowly.

“No,” I growled, twisting the water to trap her in a cocoon, frozen in place. Something inside of me broke, and my body burned with rage.

“Arwyn,” Darius tried to soothe me with his voice, but even he was having trouble keeping calm. Fire danced beneath his blue eyes, turning them a stormy grey.

Raising my right hand, I smacked the bow and quiver away from him. My fingers moved swiftly to notch an arrow in the bow and pointed it right at Darius.

“Don’t do this.” His voice didn’t waiver. “This isn’t you.”

“Yeah, well this isn't you either!” I retorted.

Dropping the bow, I summoned a ball of water and threw it at him. He ducked and rolled out of the way.

“You’re smarter than that,” he taunted, his eyes turning almost silver. “Don’t hold back, I know you have more fire in you.”

I pushed my hands forward, erupting a tidal wave from the lake. Energy seared in the atmosphere causing an electrifying burst of static to erupt, flashes of lighting flying across the sky.

“Enough!” Caesaria roared. She sliced through her water trap and held up the dagger, its tip poised right at both of us. The water splashed to the ground around her, absorbing into the grass. Her dress was now damp with the moisture from being trapped. “Stop it, both of you. Now!”

And just like that, the tidal wave receded. Darius’ eyes turned back to their normal blue. My heart beat returned to its normal pace.

I blinked, taking in my surroundings. When did we get to the bottom of the falls? Why was Darius soaking wet? And Caesaria…why was she aiming the dagger at us?

“Wh-what just happened?” I asked.

Caesaria raised her eyebrows but her expression softened when she saw the look of sheer terror that must’ve been etched on my face. “You don’t remember?”

I shook my head, glancing at the top of the falls. “Where did Randel go? Did we learn anything?”

Cae shifted nervously. “Um, I’ll tell you tomorrow. But you and Darius…you both need to go home and get some rest.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You shouldn’t have taken the wolf suppressor,” I muttered as we entered our cabin. The walk back had been silent with only a few stolen glances.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he tried to explain, running a hand through his hair.

“No, you had a choice.” I jammed my finger against his chest. “Why the hell did you have it in the first place?”

With the Alignment over, this wasn’t my wolf taking control. This was all me. I may not have remembered much about tonight’s endeavors, but I did know that only two of us were supposed to have that wolf suppressor. And Darius was not one of those two.

Darius sighed and collapsed down to the sofa. “I didn’t get it from Raydir. I didn’t even know you two had a deal until you said something at the top of the waterfall.”

I wearily sat down next to him. “So then how did you get the suppressor? Please don’t lie to me.”

He took my hand in his. Silence cut like a knife between us, only interrupted by the thumping of our hearts.

“After Caesaria injured me when we were kids, I knew I was going to turn every Alignment there forward,” Darius explained. “I had a clandestine relationship with a local healer in Gwyniar. He supplied me with the wolf suppressor every month. When I moved out here, I had stopped taking it—that’s why I’ve turned on all the other Alignments out here in Darqua—but I knew which herbs were part of it and I knew how to make it if I had to.”

“So…Raydir didn’t have anything to do with it?” I asked.

“No. But Caesaria…well, she should explain her side of things to you. There’s a reason why her suppressor worked but yours didn’t take full effect.”

“Oh.” My voice came out soft, barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t know.”

Darius reached out to tuck some stray hair behind my left ear, letting his fingers linger against my skin. “There’s no way you could’ve known, Ar. I kept it a secret because I was so used to not turning, it wasn’t fair if I stayed human and you had to shift each time.

“But we went through three Alignments before you and I got together,” I said. “How did you know we were going to end up together?”

“I don’t know. I just…I had a feeling.”

“Do you still have that feeling?” I flickered my gaze up to his. “Do you still love me?”

Where was this doubt coming from?

“Arwyn, of course I love you.” He cupped my face in his hands and leaned forward to kiss me. When our lips met, an electricity surged between us.

I broke away from the kiss. “Why did you feel like you had to keep that a secret from me? More importantly, why were you on top of the waterfall tonight? How did…how did you even know we were there?”

“The Flower Moon brings you closer to your mate,” Darius said. “I don’t really know how I got to you, I just had a feeling that I needed to be there and then…there I was.”

There were still so many unanswered questions but nothing was more important to me in that moment than being in the comfort of his arms.

“We still have a few hours before morning,” I murmured, trailing a finger over his stubble. “We should probably get some sleep.”

“Yeah.” Darius nodded, pulling his shirt off over his head and tossing it to the side. “Probably.” He scooped me up into his arms and brought me into the bedroom.

Darius laid me down on the bed, his fingers working to untie the laces of my nightgown. My hair spread out like a dark cloud around my head on the pillow.

“I’m so sorry,” he breathed against my bare skin, kissing my shoulders and entwining our fingers together. “You are my everything, I should have told you the truth from the beginning.”

“Truthfully, all I care about is that we’re on the same page here.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “We have to all be on the same page here if we are going to win this war.”

He nodded. “I know. And we are.” He leaned back down to kiss my neck, his tongue swirling over his mark.

“Being on the same page means you can’t attack Randel or any of the other rogues, Darius.”

“Arwyn—”

“No, I’m serious!” I sat up on the bed. “Darius, we need the rogues on our side. This is their fight as much as it is ours. I need to know I can trust that you won’t hurt any other rogues.”

“Okay, okay. I promise.” Darius held me close and kissed the top of my head, stroking his fingers through my hair. “I promise.”

“Good.” I tunneled into his chest, too exhausted to do anything else but sleep, and closed my eyes.