Third Person's POV The river's current churned beneath the embankment, black and hungry, reflecting the pale glow of the moon like liquid steel. Aurora's lungs burned, heart hammering as she struggled against Silas's unyielding grip. His fingers clamped around her throat with terrifying precision-not enough to crush, yet enough to remind her that a single slip would send her tumbling into the roaring water below. Her body teetered over the stone railing of the riverside embankment. Every heartbeat screamed warning, every fiber of her wolf screamed survival. Her paws-if she were fully wolfed-would have dug into stone for purchase, but now she was human enough to feel the powerless fragility of her body, with Silas's threaten, she could not shift. One wrong move, and the river would claim her. "Don't… don't! Let go! Please!" Aurora's voice cracked, panic lacing every syllable. She clawed at Silas's hand, at his iron-hard fingers, but they didn't budge. The strength in his grasp was a wolf's strength, disciplined and lethal, honed to precision by decades of pack dominance. From the corner of her eye, she saw the river surge beneath her. Even if she could swim, the violent currents were no gentle brook where she could paddle to safety. This was a river with teeth, with a wolf's cunning, ready to pull her under at the slightest misstep. "Caelum, help me!" Aurora's desperate gaze landed on Caelum Grafton, his broad shoulders tense, wolfed senses flaring with distress. Caelum's golden eyes flickered, torn between his logic and the gnawing, instinctual pull of fear. He knew her history, knew the story she had told him for years. He had trusted her, believed she had saved him. But doubt clawed at the edges of his mind tonight. "I know you trust me, don't you, Caelum?" Aurora shrieked, her voice raw, trembling as she twisted her body against Silas's grip. "You said you believed me! You said I was your rescuer!" Caelum's jaw tightened, wolf instinct snarling beneath the skin. "Silas… release her!" His words were steel and warning, laced with the edge of a wolf alpha protecting his packmate. "Who saved me back then… has nothing to do with you. But if she falls now, if something happens to her, do you think you will escape accountability? You will answer to the pack, Silas!" Silas's amber eyes gleamed like fire in the moonlight. His wolf was unleashed in that gaze, and his voice came out calm, chilling, dangerous. "You think it doesn't concern me?" he said, leaning slightly, tightening his grip just enough to send shivers down Aurora's spine. "My mate is being accused, being slandered. How could I stand idle? I will prove she tells the truth-or I will see that the one who doubts it pays. And if she plunges… we shall see who answers to the law, Caelum." Caelum's teeth ground, the wolf within him roaring in fury, but he was restrained. Silas's two lieutenants pressed against him, their hands like iron shackles. He could move only in small increments, each one painstakingly measured.Freya stood a few paces away, her eyes glittering in the pale light. Her wolf prowled, bared teeth just enough to show warning, but her expression was merciless. "You worry about her survival, Caelum?" she called, voice slicing the tension like a blade. "You still believe she saved you all those years ago? Fine. Let's test it." The wolf's instincts warred inside Caelum. He wanted to leap forward, to snatch Aurora back from the brink, but he was shackled by both the human and the wolf law: he could not challenge Silas Whitmor openly without risk of a civil war within the pack coalition. Aurora's body tilted precariously over the stone barrier. The wind tore at her hair, tugging at the hem of her uniform, teasing the boundary between safety and oblivion. Silas's hand did not loosen, but neither did it tighten. She could feel each subtle shift as he pushed her closer to the edge, testing both her balance and her fear. "Freya, do something!" Caelum's voice broke through the roar of the river, desperation crawling through every word. "If she falls… I swear-" Freya's eyes were sharp, cold as steel. Her wolf pressed against her ribs, tense and alert. "If I cared about your forgiveness, you might matter. But you? You've been irrelevant to me since before this river existed. Let her prove herself, Caelum. If she could save you from eight knife wounds, can she now survive the water you claim she mastered?" Caelum's mind wavered, doubts slicing through years of belief. Could she really have saved him? Was she capable? Or had she always been a fraud? Lana, standing beside Freya, smirked slightly, her wolfed senses intrigued. "To rescue a man struck eight times… her swimming must be exceptional. Shall we see?" Her tone was sharp, mocking, yet underneath it, curiosity glimmered like a wolf scent on the wind. Aurora's cheeks burned red, shame and terror mixing. Once she had basked in the attention of being called "Vice Pilot Aurora." She had reveled in the respect, the admiration. Now, stripped of title, stripped of control, that same sound grated, twisted into an accusation she could not escape. Kade's patience snapped, a low growl rumbling from his chest. "Enough talk. Throw her. Let's see if she can float or sink!" Silas's lips curved into a faint, terrifying smile. In one swift motion, his hand loosened. "No! Wait! I-I'll die! I'll die!" Aurora screamed, thrashing wildly, her body twisting as gravity finally pulled her weight forward. "I didn't save him! I didn't! I found him after someone else rescued him! I just followed the ambulance! The medics… they thought I saved him… so I went along with it to the hospital!" Her wolf howled internally, instinct screaming that her survival depended on more than words. The river's teeth were waiting, black and merciless.Caelum's senses screamed at him, but he could only watch, tethered by Silas's dominance and his own hesitation. Freya's wolf observed coldly, calculating the truth in Aurora's panic and fear. The water churned below, and the river seemed to whisper promises of reckoning. Tonight, every wolf in that dockside scene knew one truth: survival was no longer a question of skill, but of courage, of truth, and of which wolf-human or beast-would dominate the pack's reckoning.