Sera's POV
My hands were glowing.
I stared at them in shock as violet light poured from my palms onto the wounded guard's chest. His deep gash closed right before my eyes, skin knitting together like magic.
Because it was magic.
Healing magic I'd never had before. Magic Marcus said died when my wolf died three years ago.
But Marcus lied about a lot of things, didn't he?
"Sera!" His voice cut through the chaos. "Get away from there! Hide in the safe room NOW!"
I ignored him. Three more wounded wolves lay nearby, bleeding and crying out in pain. My body moved on instinct, dropping beside a woman with a slashed shoulder.
The moment my glowing hands touched her skin, something inside me woke up.
My wolf.
She exploded to the surface with a howl that echoed only in my mind. Three years of being locked away, suppressed, hidden—and suddenly she was alive and furious and screaming one word over and over:
MATE. MATE. MATE.
I gasped, my entire body shaking. "No. That's impossible—"
Then I felt him.
Eyes on me. Burning into me like fire. Making every nerve in my body light up with recognition I didn't understand.
I looked up.
The Rogue King stood twenty feet away, frozen in the middle of the battlefield. Warriors fought around him, but he didn't move. Didn't blink. Just stared at me like I was a ghost he'd been chasing for years.
"Sera."
He whispered my name so quietly I shouldn't have been able to hear it over the noise. But I did. I heard it like he'd spoken directly into my soul.
And something in my chest exploded.
The mate bond.
It slammed into me with the force of a freight train—three years of suppressed connection roaring to life all at once. Pain. Longing. Desperate need. Love so fierce it burned.
None of it was mine. All of it came from him.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Could only stare into those golden eyes and feel my entire world tilt sideways.
"No," I whispered. "This isn't real. You're the monster who killed my family—"
"I'm the man you married." His voice was rough, broken. "The man you loved. The man who's been dying without you for three years."
My wolf howled in agreement. YES. YES. HOME. MATE.
"Stop it!" I pressed my hands to my head, trying to block out the voices—my wolf's, the bond's, the memories trying to surface through the fog in my mind. "I don't know you!"
"Your wolf knows me." Kael took a step forward, and my heart lurched. "Your soul knows me. The bond knows me. They just made you forget."
A memory flashed—golden eyes staring down at me with such tenderness it made my chest ache. A deep voice whispering, "You're everything." Hands tangled in my hair. A kiss that tasted like coming home.
I stumbled backward. "Get out of my head!"
"I'm not in your head, little mate." Another step closer. "I'm in your heart. Where I've always been. Where I'll always be."
"Sera, RUN!" Marcus appeared out of nowhere, grabbing my arm hard enough to bruise. "That's the Rogue King! He's lying to you!"
But I couldn't run. Couldn't look away from Kael. Because the bond between us was pulling tighter with every second, dragging me toward him like a rope tied around my ribs.
"She's wearing your ring," Kael said to Marcus, his voice dropping to something deadly. "You put your ring on my wife's finger."
"She's MY fiancée!" Marcus snarled. "I saved her from YOUR kind three years ago!"
"You STOLE her!" Kael's eyes blazed brighter. "Had a witch erase her memories. Locked her wolf away. Fed her suppressants so she'd never remember who she really is!"
The pills. The medicine Marcus gave me every morning. The medicine that always made me feel fuzzy and disconnected from myself.
My stomach turned over. "Marcus? What's he talking about?"
"Don't listen to him," Marcus said quickly. Too quickly. "He's trying to confuse you. To make you doubt—"
"Show her the mark," Kael interrupted. His eyes never left mine. "The one on your chest, Sera. Right over your heart. Press on it. Tell me you don't feel it."
My hand moved on its own, fingers finding the spot that had ached for three years. The spot I'd asked doctors about a hundred times, only to be told nothing was there.
But something was there. I felt it now—a tingling warmth under my skin, hidden beneath magic I didn't understand.
"No." I shook my head. "This is a trick—"
"It's the mating mark," Kael said softly. "Proof that we're bonded. That you're mine and I'm yours. Someone used a glamour spell to hide it from you, but it's there. It's always been there."
Tears burned my eyes. Because part of me—the part my wolf was screaming from—knew he was telling the truth.
"I don't remember you," I whispered.
Pain flashed across Kael's face, so raw and devastating it made my heart clench. "I know. But I remember enough for both of us."
He started walking toward me again, and this time no one tried to stop him. Even the fighting seemed to pause as every wolf in the courtyard watched the Rogue King approach his stolen mate.
"Don't be afraid," Kael murmured. "I'm not going to hurt you. I could never hurt you."
But I was afraid. Terrified. Because looking at him made my chest ache with a longing I didn't understand. Made my wolf howl with joy and rage and desperate need. Made me want to run toward him and away from him at the same time.
"Sera, please." Marcus's grip on my arm tightened. "Let me get you somewhere safe—"
"Safe?" I turned to stare at him. Really stare at him for the first time. "Have you been lying to me?"
His expression flickered. Just for a second. But I saw it—guilt and fear and something that looked like panic.
"The pills you give me," I continued, my voice shaking. "What are they really for?"
"Anxiety. I told you—"
"WHAT ARE THEY FOR?" My hands started glowing again, brighter this time. Power I didn't know I had surging through my veins.
Marcus stepped back, and that's when I knew.
Everything Kael said was true.
"You took me," I breathed. "You stole my memories. You've been lying to me for three years."
"I saved you!" Marcus insisted. "From him! From that monster!"
"I'm the monster?" Kael's laugh was bitter. "You kidnapped my mate. Erased her mind. Locked her wolf away and fed her poison for three years. And I'M the monster?"
My head spun. My wolf clawed at my insides, trying to break free completely. The bond pulled so hard I took a step toward Kael before I realized I was moving.
He smiled. It was a broken, desperate smile that made something in my chest crack wide open.
"Come here, Sera," he said gently. "Come home."
And I almost did. Almost walked right into his arms like my body knew exactly where it belonged.
Then Marcus stabbed something into my neck.
Fire exploded through my veins. My legs gave out. The world tilted sideways.
"I'm sorry," Marcus whispered as he caught me. "But I can't let you remember. Not yet."
"What... did you..." I couldn't form words. Couldn't move. Could only watch through blurring vision as Kael's face twisted with fury.
"WHAT DID YOU GIVE HER?" His roar shook the building.
"The same thing I've been giving her all along." Marcus lifted me into his arms. "Just stronger. She'll forget this conversation by morning. Forget you. Again."
"NO!" Kael lunged forward, but warriors swarmed between us.
I tried to reach for him. Tried to fight the drug pulling me under. But darkness crept across my vision, dragging me down.
The last thing I saw was Kael fighting through an army of wolves, his golden eyes locked on mine, his voice echoing through the bond:
"I'll find you again, little mate. I'll always find you. And next time, I'm not letting you go."
Then the world went black.
But as consciousness slipped away, one thought burned through the fog:
I believed him.