Kael POV
The prophecy was wrong.
I stared at the girl in the patched dress—the one the tracking spell had led us to—and felt nothing but disappointment crushing my chest.
This couldn't be Seraphina. My baby sister who'd been stolen nineteen years ago. The Lost Princess we'd searched for since I was six years old.
This girl was broken. Beaten down. Barely holding herself together.
"Kael," Damon said quietly beside me. "The blood magic is reacting. It's her."
I didn't want it to be her.
For nineteen years, I'd imagined finding my sister. In my mind, she was strong and fierce and untouched by whatever horrors she'd endured. Someone who'd survived and thrived despite being stolen.
Not this... this fragile thing that looked like a strong wind would shatter her completely.
"Run the test again," I ordered.
Ryker shot me a look. "We've run it three times. The royal crest glows every time we get near her. She's Seraphina."
My wolf stirred restlessly inside me, confirming what I didn't want to believe. He recognized her. Knew her on some instinctual level that bypassed logic.
And worse—far worse—he recognized her as our mate.
The mate bond hadn't snapped into place yet, but I could feel it hovering right at the edge of my consciousness. Waiting. Ready to chain me to this broken girl forever.
I'd waited twenty-five years to meet my fated mate. Twenty-five years of imagining someone strong enough to stand beside me. Someone worthy of being queen.
Not someone who'd just been publicly humiliated by a Beta wolf and stood there taking it.
"We should've come sooner," Damon growled, watching the ceremony with barely controlled rage. "Before they destroyed her."
"We came when the tracking spell finally worked," I said coldly. "It's not our fault she was—"
The male on the platform spoke, and his words made my blood freeze.
"I reject Aria Blackwood as my mate. She is wolfless, worthless, and beneath my station."
The crowd laughed. Actually laughed while our sister—our MATE—stood there being torn apart.
The mate bond slammed into place so violently I actually staggered.
Three golden threads shot from my chest, connecting me to the girl in ways I'd never wanted. I felt her pain like it was my own—the humiliation, the heartbreak, the complete shattering of whatever hope she'd been clinging to.
It was agony.
Ryker snarled beside me, his eyes flashing gold. "I'm going to rip out his throat."
"Not yet," I managed, though my own wolf was screaming for blood. "We handle this properly."
But "properly" felt impossible when I could feel our mate dying inside while hundreds of wolves mocked her suffering.
This was our fault. We'd been searching for nineteen years, and we'd arrived nineteen years too late.
"Kael," Damon's voice was tight with barely leashed violence. "If we don't intervene right now, I'm going to start killing people."
He was right. We'd waited long enough.
I released my Alpha power—not all of it, just enough to freeze every wolf in the clearing. The temperature dropped. Shadows answered my call, wrapping around us as we materialized in the center of the ceremony.
The wolves dropped to their knees. Good. They should bow before us.
But the girl—Seraphina, Aria, whatever name she'd been using—stayed standing. Her gray eyes were empty, like someone had scooped out everything that made her human and left only a shell behind.
Looking at her hurt worse than any wound I'd ever taken in battle.
"That girl," I announced, my voice carrying across the silent clearing, "is Seraphina Moonshadow. The Lost Princess. Our sister."
Shock rippled through the crowd. The Luna who'd been tormenting our mate went white as death. The Beta on the platform looked like he might vomit.
But Seraphina—Aria—just stared at me with those hollow eyes like she couldn't process the words.
"She's also," Damon added, his storm-gray eyes locked on our mate, "our fated mate."
I felt the moment she felt the bond snap fully into place. Saw her eyes widen, saw her gasp as three connections wrapped around her soul.
And through the bond, I felt her complete confusion. Her disbelief. Her absolute certainty that this had to be some kind of cruel joke.
She didn't believe she deserved us.
The realization hit me like a physical blow. Nineteen years of abuse had convinced her she was worthless. That she deserved nothing. That even being chosen as a mate had to be a mistake or a lie.
My wolf howled in rage and grief.
"Hello, little mate," Ryker said gently, moving closer to her. "We've been looking for you for a very long time."
She looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language. "I don't understand."
Her voice was so small. So broken.
I wanted to destroy everyone who'd made her sound like that.
"You will," I said, forcing my voice to soften despite the fury burning in my chest. "We'll explain everything. But first—"
I turned to the Beta who'd rejected her, letting him see exactly how dead he already was.
"—we're going to deal with the male who just publicly humiliated our mate."
Ryker's smile was all teeth. "I vote we rip his throat out."
"Too quick," Damon said. "He should suffer first."
The Beta's face went pale with terror, and satisfaction curled through me. He should be afraid. He should know exactly what he'd done.
But then Aria spoke, her voice quiet but steady: "What do you want us to do, little mate?"
She could demand anything. His death. His torture. His complete destruction.
Instead, she said: "I want to leave."
Of all the things I'd expected, that wasn't one of them.
"That's it?" Ryker asked, surprised. "No revenge? No punishment?"
"They're not worth it." She looked at the Beta one final time with absolutely nothing in her eyes. "He made his choice. I'm making mine."
Despite everything—despite her being broken and small and nothing like the mate I'd imagined—I felt a spark of respect.
She had dignity. Even beaten down and destroyed, she refused to sink to their level.
Maybe there was more to her than I'd thought.
We handled the logistics quickly. Threatened the appropriate people. Made sure everyone understood that hurting our mate meant death. Watched the wolves who'd laughed at her now tremble in fear.
Then Elder Thorne appeared and said the words that made my blood run cold:
"Now you're angry. And anger is going to break that seal whether you're ready or not."
"What seal?" I demanded.
But it was too late.
Aria screamed, and power exploded from her body in a shockwave that sent wolves flying. The clearing erupted in chaos as our mate collapsed, her body convulsing with the force of her awakening.
"Don't interfere!" Elder Thorne shouted when I tried to reach her. "The awakening has begun!"
"It's too soon!" I snarled. "She's not ready—the transition will kill her—"
"She's stronger than you think."
But watching her writhe in agony while I stood helpless was its own kind of torture. The mate bond screamed at me to help her, protect her, take away her pain.
I could do nothing.
Then her scream turned into a howl that shattered windows and made the full moon blaze brighter.
Power detonated from her body—not normal wolf power, but something ancient and devastating and absolutely terrifying.
When the light faded, Aria stood in the center of a circle of scorched earth.
Her gray eyes had turned luminous violet. Her silver-blonde hair seemed to glow with inner light. And the power radiating from her made every Alpha in the clearing—including me—want to bare our throats in submission.
This wasn't just any wolf awakening.
This was the White Phoenix.
The rarest, most powerful Lycan in existence. The creature from legends that appeared once every thousand years.
Our broken, beaten, "worthless" mate was the most powerful wolf alive.
And she was looking at us with those glowing violet eyes like she was seeing us for the first time.
"My wolf says," Aria spoke, her voice layered with power that made the air vibrate, "that I'm not the one who's broken."
She turned to face the entire pack, and wolves cowered before her.
"She says you are. All of you. For hurting a queen."
Then her gaze landed on me specifically, and I felt the weight of her judgment like a physical thing.
"Especially you," she said softly. "My wolf knows what you thought when you first saw me. She heard every doubt. Every disappointment. Every wish that I was someone else."
The mate bond betrayed me, letting her feel everything I'd felt when I first laid eyes on her.
"You wanted a strong mate," Aria continued, her violet eyes burning into mine. "Congratulations. You got one. Now let's see if you're strong enough to deserve her."