After dismissing the Alpha’s guards, Killian yanked me forward by the wrist. His grip was so tight I couldn’t even think of getting free.

“Tell everyone my chambers are out of bounds. I don’t care how important they are, every meeting is adjourned till tomorrow,” Killian said to Harry, who had just sent the rest of the guards back to their posts.

Harry’s brows twisted. “What if it’s your lady?”

“I don’t care. Stop anyone from coming in,” Killian replied with cold finality, dragging me with him.

I didn’t resist. My throat was tired of screaming. If I was going to survive this, I’d fight head-on.

After what happened today, I’d expected questions, but there’s still so much I don’t even know about myself.

The moment we entered his chambers, Killian threw me into his inner room and locked the door behind us.

His rugged face tightened into a harsh frown, both brows furrowing into one line.

He stared at me like he could scrape answers from my skin, then finally stopped. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to steady my shaky breaths and limbs.

Being weak would do me no good.

His gaze dropped from my face to my chest. Only then did I realize how revealing my outfit was, but this time, his eyes held no seduction, no lust. He wasn’t looking at my body. He was trying to find something inside me.

He looked down at my feet, then back up to my face, and exhaled slowly.

“I have a lot of questions, and I don’t even know where to begin. Who are you?” His voice was calm, but it pressed against me like a blade.

I inhaled slowly and released a puff of hot air.

I couldn’t rush the answers. I barely knew anything anymore, and it felt like Arlie had been avoiding me.

“I’m Elysian,” I whispered through dry lips.

“I know your name. Don’t give me that!” His frustration sharpened with each word. “You’re not a wolf, and I’m not certain you’re human either. Humans can’t wield your kind of power, and they don’t end up in Bloodmoon alive. I can’t even figure out what kind of being you are, so I’m asking again.”

All the confidence I’d built up shattered. An angry Killian I couldn’t handle, especially without Harry anywhere near.

I tried to speak, but the way his eyes drilled into me froze every sound in my throat.

“Ohh… so that’s your choice? Stay silent and make me mad?” he thundered.

I wasn’t built for this. I thought I’d grown used to the growls and the threats, but Killian’s anger was a different beast.

My knees trembled, my palms slick with sweat. Who knew what this psycho would do?

He stepped toward me, slow, deliberate;his gaze never leaving my face. Without thinking, I backed away, step for step, until my back hit the brick wall.

The dull thud carried finality. No escape, something inside me cracked.

He caged me in with his arms braced against the wall, trapping me in his shadow. I was forced to breathe his breath, feel his heat.

“Elysian, who are you?” His voice lowered, but the burn behind it was worse. It wasn’t a question anymore, it was a warning.

“I… I…” My tongue failed me yet again.

He stood there like a predator right before the pounce. And panicking, I spilled the only thing I could.

A partial truth.

“I don’t know. I’m… I’m a ghost. I was hit by a car and the next minute I woke up here. In a world where human-looking beings shift into wolves. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m lost.” The words broke out of me along with a sob, my palm pressed against my mouth.

I couldn’t read his face, but for a split second, his eyes softened.

He inhaled slowly and lowered his arms, stepping back.

“You might not be lying,” he muttered, glancing at me over his shoulder. “But that’s not the whole truth. If you’re Elysian, why did Thorne call you Nyra?”

“I don’t know who Nyra is. This is my first time in Bloodmoon,” I said, breath unsteady. He seemed to hate how relieved I sounded.

“You think I’m a pup? Somehow, you show up in Bloodmoon, in my hunting grounds. Somehow, you have a connection with Thorne. Somehow, he calls you a name you claim isn’t yours. Somehow, you calm him down like no one ever has. Do you think I’m a fool?” He roared the last part and slammed a wooden wolf sculpture to the floor.

It shattered. And so did I.

My body collapsed to the ground, tears pouring hot and heavy, tears I didn’t summon.

“I swear I don’t know who Nyra is,” I cried. “I swear I never met Thorne before the night he almost killed me. I’m telling the truth! I’m not lying to you!”

It was the first time I’d cried like this. The first time I’d felt so broken. The first time explaining myself felt like begging for my life.

I know I was a psycho in my world, but here I’m nothing, the psychos here are just on another level.

Killian didn’t soften, not even at the sight of my tears.

Instead, he grabbed me and forced me upright, even though my legs wouldn’t hold me.

“I don’t know what plan you have with Thorne,” he growled through gritted teeth, “but hear me, wake that crazy being up and give me a proper explanation, or I’ll slit your throat before my shadow even shifts.”

Then he threw me onto the bed.

He stared at me for a heartbeat, jaw clenched, then stormed out without a glance back. The door slammed. The lock clicked.

The silence screamed.

Who was Nyra? And why was I paying the price for her? Why did my life keep circling back to that psychotic beast?

I curled up on the bed, shaking, wishing I’d wake up and find this was all a nightmare.

But the moment I closed my eyes, a sharp pain hit the back of my neck.

I reached up to rub it, then froze.

Because under my skin, faint and unfamiliar, a name surfaced like it had always been there.

Nyra.