Sera's POV

"Found you."

As the Alpha King looks at me like I'm a puzzle he's been trying to solve for a hundred years, those two words keep repeating in my mind.

My wolf is yelling uncontrollably. * "MINE. MINE. MINE."

"No," I mumble aloud. "This is incorrect. I've already got—"

The Alpha King cuts in with a voice that could cut. "You already have nothing," he says. "That boy who turned you down for a decade? He's not your partner. Yes, I am.

How is Marcus known to him?

How is he aware of *anything*?

Despite my head spinning and my vision constantly blurring at the edges, I manage to say, "I don't understand." "You cannot have two partners. It's not—"

"You never had two partners." He tightens his hold on me, not roughly, but firmly. As if he's worried I'll vanish. "You had a partner and a coward who sensed the connection but was too frail to assert it."

The world slants to one side. Or perhaps I'm just finally fainting.

The Alpha King orders me to "stay awake," and the force in his voice actually causes my eyes to open again. "Please tell me—"

But like a riptide, darkness is dragging me down. It all comes crashing down at once after ten years of barely surviving, barely eating, and barely sleeping.

The Alpha King growling, "Don't you dare die on me," is the last sound I hear before everything goes dark. Not now that I've discovered you."

---

Softness greets me as I awaken.

That's the first thing that comes to mind. cozy sheets. pillow that is soft. A soft mattress without springs that jut into my back.

I think I'm dreaming for a moment, confused. Since before my mother passed away, I have not slept on anything soft.

Then I recall.

The sprint. the breakdown. The King Alpha.

*"MINE."*

My eyes pop open.

I'm in a large room with stone walls and a real fire crackling in the fireplace. I could fit five of us in the bed I'm in. For the first time in ages, my wolf purrs because of the scent of pine, winter, and something else.

With his back to me, the Alpha King stands by the window. I can sense the power emanating from him even though I can't see his face. It feels tangible as it presses against my skin.

He says, "You're awake," without looking back.

I have a dry throat. "Where am I?"

"The Court of Obsidian." It's my land. "My house."

His. My wolf sits up and listens because of the way he says that word.

I try to sit up and say, "I need to leave." A huge error. I nearly throw up because my head is spinning so much.

"You're not leaving." He turns around now, and those cold blue eyes do a better job of pinning me to the bed than chains ever could. "Starvation is causing your body to shut down. You haven't had a healthy meal in years, according to my healer.

I'm burned with shame. "I had enough to eat."

"Scraps. leftovers from the table. anything they didn't desire. He becomes dangerously silent. "Tell me I'm mistaken."

I am unable to. since he is correct.

After taking three long steps across the room, the Alpha King sits on the edge of the bed. He's even more menacing up close. old. strong. That's the kind of wolf that could easily crush me.

However, when he touches my face, his hand is soft.

"Name," he says. Not a query. An order.

"You are already aware of it. Sera Blackwood.

"Entire name."

"My full name is that."

His eyes flicker. "The name of your mother."

My chest gets constricted. "Lyanna. Why is it important?

"Because I've spent a decade searching for the daughter of Lyanna Blackwood." I shiver as his thumb slides over my cheekbone. "Since the night I saw you murder her."

I recoil as if he had slapped me. "You were there?"

"I got there too late to prevent it. It's too late to save her. He tightens his jaw. "But it's not too late to discover your true self."

"A murderer," I mumble.

"A Moon Priestess."

The words linger between us like an unexploded bomb.

"That's not true," I respond. "There are no more moon priestesses. They went extinct hundreds of years ago.

The Alpha King corrects, "They were hunted to extinction." "They all killed because Alphas were afraid of their strength. Everyone, with the exception of your mother. He bends in. "And you."

I let out a broken laugh. "I'm not a priestess. I'm an omega. the lowest ranking. I no longer even own a wolf.

"Your wolf remained. She has been hiding. Gold flashes in his eyes. But now she's awake. Is she not?

And he's right, my god. My wolf is wide awake and watching this male as if he were the only thing in the world.

*"MATE,"* she murmurs. * "OURS." *

"This is insane," I exhale. "I am not capable of being a priestess. I am unable to be your partner. I am nothing. I am nothing.

"I own you." It sounds like a vow. similar to a pledge. similar to fate itself. "And I've been waiting for you for two hundred years."

Two hundred years?

"How old are you?" I spout out.

"Two hundred and forty-seven." He says it as if it were commonplace. "Little wolf, I am the Alpha King. I don't age like other wolves.

A tiny wolf. I feel sick to my stomach at that moniker.

"I don't understand any of this," I acknowledge. "I was cleaning floors yesterday. I'm supposed to be a mythical creature today, mated to a king older than America.

"Yesterday you were surviving," he corrects. "You're alive today. There is a distinction.

Someone bangs on the door before I can answer.

A man's voice yells, "Brother!" "There's a problem!"

The Alpha King, whose true name I have yet to learn, growls in his throat. "What?"

Another man bursts through the door. Despite his youthful appearance, he still possesses a dangerous edge. "Half of Alpha Marcus Kane's pack is at our border. He is requesting that we give his omega back.

My heart stops.

It's Marcus.

Marcus came to get me.

Ten years later, he's at last—

The Alpha King's voice could freeze hell itself when he says, "She's not his omega." "She is my partner."

The other man says sharply, "He's claiming pack law." "She is technically Silvermoon's until—"

"Technically, I don't care." The room's temperature appears to drop by ten degrees as the Alpha King stands. "She. Remains. Here."

"If we don't give her back, he's threatening war."

War. due to me. The punching bag of the pack. The wolf that no one desired.

I try to talk, but my voice is unusable.

Something in the Alpha King's face makes my breath catch as he gives me another look. It's possessive. defensive. Definitely.

"Guard her," he instructs the other man. "Kill anyone who tries to take her."

Then he's gone, walking confidently out of the room to confront Marcus.

The stranger introduces himself as Damien, the King's brother, and we are alone.

"What's his name?" Quietly, I ask.

"Caelan. Silvercrest, Caelan. Damien looks at me questioningly. "He has been searching for you for a very long time."

"Why?"

Raised voices reverberate from outside before Damien can respond. Shouting. Snarling.

My blood freezes when one voice breaks through the others.

"SERA!"

Marcus. He sounds frantic. Worried. The aloof alpha who disregarded me for a decade was nothing like this.

"I know you can hear me, Sera!"

Damien doesn't stop me as I stagger to the window.

I spot Marcus and twenty Silvermoon wolves in the courtyard below, confronting Caelan and his court.

Marcus looks crazy. His body is trembling like his wolf trying to escape, and his eyes are glowing.

"I own her!" Marcus yells at Caelan. "I was the first to sense the connection! You can't simply—"

With deadly composure, Caelan says, "You rejected her." "You did nothing and let them break her for ten years."

"I was keeping her safe!" Marcus screams, sounding almost hysterical. "To protect her, I had to turn down the bond! I was forced to swear by my father—"

Caelan interrupts, "Your father's dead." "And his oath is now meaningless."

Marcus's gaze darts across the windows before settling on me. "Please, Sera! Let me clarify! Every day I felt the bond, and I had to ignore it even though it killed me! My father made a promise to your mother—"

"Enough," snarls Caelan.

I can't take my eyes off Marcus, though. at his desperate expression. The suffering.

He sensed it. All those years.

Nevertheless, he turned me down.

"The bond between Sera and me is real," Caelan says, piercing my mind like a blade. Everything else is subordinated to true mate bonds.

"That's impossible," growls Marcus. "She can't have two—"

"She doesn't," Caelan asserts. "She only has one real partner. Me. Gold flashes in his eyes. "She had an artificial bond with you. Magic that knows magic. Moon Priestess recognizing the vow your father made to her mother.

A priestess. He repeated it.

"You're lying," spits out Marcus. "She isn't a priestess. She is an omega. She has no wolf at all—"

Then Caelan utters the words that alter everything:

"Little wolf, show them. Let them see your true self.

I can tell he's speaking to me somehow.

I sense the shift beginning as my wolf charges forward without my consent. My body remembers after being silent for ten years.

However, something has changed. False. My bones aren't breaking properly. I feel a surge of power like lightning, like liquid fire, like—

Unintentionally, I leap through the window.

In the courtyard, land on all fours.

And all the wolves fall to their knees, even the Alpha King.

since I'm not your typical wolf.

I'm radiant. Silver-white fur that resembles moonlight captured. The size of a typical she-wolf is doubled. And I can sense the ancient power burning in my eyes.

Marcus gives me a horrified look.

"Oh god," he murmurs. "Your mother wasn't merely keeping you hidden. She was concealing who you are.

"A Moon Priestess," Caelan says softly while remaining on his knees and gazing at me in awe. "The final member of a purportedly extinct lineage."

I ought to feel strong. I ought to feel fantastic.

Instead, like a broken guitar string, I feel Marcus's bond, which I believed to be genuine, suddenly break.

And another bond slams into existence in its place. more powerful. Ancient, deeper.

putting me in touch with the Alpha King who has been waiting for two centuries.

* "MATE," my wolf howls. * "OURS. OURS AT LAST."*

But as I stand there, glowing as the moon itself, my only thought is:

Who the hell am I?