Saige’s POV

The training grounds buzz with energy long before sunrise. I feel it the second Lior escorts me outside—the air is sharp, cool, and humming with the kind of tension only warriors create when they gather. Their boots crush dirt, their breathing syncs, and their wolves flicker beneath their skin. I feel every pulse of it down my spine.

My wolf reacts before I do. She rises inside me, stretching like she just woke from a centuries-long sleep. Her claws scrape against the inside of my ribcage, eager, hungry.

I don’t know her name.

But she knows mine.

And she whispers it like a battle cry.

“Saige,” Lior says gently, “are you tired? We can turn back.”

“I’m fine,” I lied.

I’m not fine.

The closer we get to Eike, the harder my pulse slams against my chest. It’s like walking toward a storm I’ve survived once but haven’t healed from.

The pack forms a semicircle, murmurs spreading as they see me. Their eyes dart to the mark on my shoulder, the one glowing faintly beneath the bandages. I pretend not to notice.

Eike stands at the center.

Command radiates from him effortlessly. He isn’t trying. He never has to as his presence alone bends the air, his wolf pressing against reality with silent, lethal authority.

But the second his eyes land on me…

everything changes.

His posture stiffens, breath catching for a fraction of a second.

His wolf pushes forward so violently I feel it from across the field—a surge of heat, power, and recognition.

A sound vibrates beneath his skin.

Not a growl, not a warning.

A calling.

His wolf knows me.

My stomach twists. I look away, but my wolf whips her head up, furious, flashing her teeth inside my chest as if I’ve insulted her mate.

Mate.

No.

Not again, not with him.

Eike clears his throat and breaks the silence, “We’re not here for combat, just observation.”

Liar.

His wolf is pacing beneath his skin, restless, wanting closer. I feel it, thickening the air between us until breathing becomes a negotiation.

“Saige,” Eike says, voice low, unreadable. “Shift. If you can.”

My heart plummets.

Shift?

In front of the entire pack?

In front of him?

“I don’t know how,” I whisper.

“You do,” he says. “Your wolf is old, she remembers.”

That word again—remembers.

Everyone keeps saying it.

Like my body belongs to a past I can’t escape.

Lior steps closer. “Alpha, maybe…”

“She needs to know what she is,” Eike snaps. “And so do we.”

His eyes burning into mine send that electric heat through me again. I hate that I feel it. I hate that I respond to it. I hate that something ancient and familiar trembles beneath my skin when he looks at me like that.

“Don’t be afraid,” he adds softly.

I almost laugh.

Don’t be afraid?

He doesn’t even know what he once did to me.

He doesn’t remember the fire, the claws, the betrayal.

But my body remembers.

My wolf remembers more.

“Saige,” he says again, deeper now, Alpha command threading through his voice, warm and irresistible. “Let her out.”

His words hit my soul like a stone dropped into water, rippling through me, pulling. The pack watches in silence—some curious, some suspicious, some whispering that I’m too powerful, too strange, too… reborn.

Pressure builds behind my eyes, running down my spine, a molten ache that forces my bones to tremble. The wolf inside me slams against the barrier of my skin.

She wants out.

She wants him.

No.

I bite down on the rising scream, clutching my arms as heat explodes beneath my skin. The ground sways, the sunlight dims. Every instinct screams at me to shift, to surrender, to obey.

Eike steps closer, voice dropping. “Saige… breathe. I’m right here.”

That makes it worse.

His scent hits me—pine, smoke, and something painfully familiar—and my wolf claws upward, desperate, wild.

“Stop,” I gasp. “Please don’t—don’t get closer.”

“Why?”

Because my wolf wants to throw herself at you.

Because my soul knows you.

Because your touch might kill me again. All of this in my thoughts.

“I—I can’t control her,” I choke out.

He freezes.

And for the first time, the great Alpha looks unsure.

But it’s too late.

Something inside me breaks open.

Light blasts through my chest—silver and violent—and before I can stop it, before I can even understand it, my wolf’s aura erupts outward, slamming into the ground in a shockwave.

Several warriors stagger.

Lior curses under his breath.

Someone whispers, “Moon-blessed…”

Another says, “No… reincarnated.”

Eike’s eyes widen, stunned, breath catching sharply.

His wolf surges forward, answering mine with a raw, primal force that makes my knees buckle.

Not dominance.

Not aggression.

Recognition.

My vision blurs and my body shakes uncontrollably. The bond—whatever twisted version of it has awakened—wraps around my throat like a chain.

Everything goes white.

I hear Eike shouting my name—once, twice—before the ground tilts under me. The world fades, sound dissolving into a distant echo.

As the darkness pulls me under, I feel one thing—

his hands catching me.

And my lips move without my permission, whispering a name that tastes like memory and blood.

“Eike…”

-----

Eike’s POV

Saige collapses before I can stop her.

One moment she’s standing there with silver light tearing through her skin like she’s too powerful to stay contained—and the next, her eyes roll back, her legs buckle, and she drops.

My heart stops.

I move before anyone else does, catching her inches before she hits the ground. Her body is trembling, burning hot then cold, her breathing uneven. Her wolf surges beneath her skin, wild and unstable.

This isn’t normal.

This isn’t anything I’ve ever seen.

Lior rushes forward. “Alpha—should we call the…”

“Everyone back,” I snap, baring my teeth without meaning to. “Now.”

The entire training field freezes. My wolf is too close to the surface, too furious, too possessive. Anyone stepping nearer feels like a threat I’ll tear apart.

Saige lies in my arms, fragile and burning at the same time. And the scent of her—gods, her scent—hits me harder than it did yesterday.

Warm moonlight.

Wild forest rain.

And something… familiar.

Too familiar.

My wolf paces, restless, pushing against my ribs with a violence that has my breath coming sharp. He wants to howl, claim, mark. Drag her close like she’s…

No.

No.

I don’t do this.

I don’t fall apart over strangers.

Lior clears his throat gently. “Alpha, she needs the infirmary.”

He’s right, but my arms don’t move. They tighten around her instead.

Pathetic.

I force myself to stand, cradling her more carefully than I want anyone to notice. As I turn, I feel dozens of eyes on me—warriors whispering behind their hands.

“Did you see her aura?”

“Never seen anything like it.”

“She didn’t shift—what was that?”

“The Alpha reacted—did you see it? His wolf—”

Their voices buzz in the back of my skull like flies.

Saige stirs, her cheek brushing my chest. My wolf snarls softly—not at her, but at the world.

She whispers something. Too faint as I lean closer.

“…Eike…”

My steps falter.

No one knows my name in that tone.

That intimate way.

That… haunted way.

It’s like she’s pleading.

Like she remembers something I don’t.

A memory brushes the back of my mind—fire, screams, a woman calling out to me—but it’s gone before I grasp it.

Damn it.

I carry her to the infirmary, trying to ignore the way my hands shake every time her breath hits my throat. The healer, Mira, gasps when she sees us.

“What happened?” she asks.

“She pushed herself too far,” I say, which is true—and not. “Take care of her.”

“Set her there,” Mira says quickly.

I lay Saige on the bed, but my wolf hates letting go. It feels wrong. Like placing her down is abandoning her.

Mira examines the faint glow under Saige’s skin. Her eyes widen. “Alpha… She's stabilizing too fast. This healing… it’s not natural.”

“I know.”

“She isn’t just any wolf.”

“I know,” I repeat, harder.

Mira hesitates, then murmurs, “Her wolf is ancient, old magic. Older than anything in our pack history. If this bond awakening is connected to…”

“Nothing is connected,” I snap sharper than I mean to.

Mira flinches.

I exhale slowly, forcing calm. “Just monitor her.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

I turn to leave—because I should, because I need to, because staying is dangerous—but Saige suddenly whimpers.

My body locks.

Her back arches off the bed, her fingers curling. A cold sweat breaks across her brow. She is fighting something in her dreams—something violent.

“No… don’t…” she whispers. “Please… don’t kill me…”

My blood freezes.

What the hell?

I move back to her side before I think, gripping the edge of the bed. Mira watches, alarmed.

“She’s trapped in a memory,” Mira says quietly.

Of what?

Of who?

Her breathing turns ragged, panic ripping through her. Tears slip from the corners of her eyes.

And then…

Her hand shoots out and grips mine.

I go still.

Her voice cracks as she whispers, “Eike… don’t kill me again…”

Again.

Again.

The word hits me like a blade.

My wolf roars inside me, a tortured, furious sound that shakes my bones. My vision blurs at the edges.

What does she mean again?

What memory is she reliving?

Why is my name tied to her fear?

I look at her face—this stranger’s face—and suddenly, for a split second, another face overlays it. A woman I once knew, a woman I lost. A woman whose death still sits in my chest like ash.

No.

No.

This is impossible.

I step back, breath ragged, heart pounding.

Mira whispers, “Alpha… what’s wrong?”

Everything.

Everything is wrong.

The mate bond I’ve been denying isn’t just awakening—it’s dragging old ghosts with it.

And one thing becomes terrifyingly clear:

Saige knows something about me.

Something I don’t remember.

And it might destroy us both.

The healer left us.

I clenched my jaw and fought the inner voice back.

This wasn’t possible.

I lifted Saige gently, her head resting against my shoulder. Even unconscious, her body trembled as if the memory—or whatever she saw—still chased her in her sleep.

Her scent wrapped around me again, warm and painfully familiar. My wolf reacted instantly, pulling me closer, pushing to mark her, claim her, protect her.

I swallowed hard.

“What are you?” I whispered, not expecting an answer.

Saige stirred, just barely. Her fingers brushed against my chest like they were searching for something they’d touched before, in another time, another life.

A ghost of memory hit me—

a flash of moonlight, a hand slipping out of my reach, her voice screaming my name but it disappeared before I could grasp it.

I tightened my hold.

“Eike!” a guard shouted from the other side of the training grounds. “Is she—”

“Get the healer,” Eike snapped. “Now.”

The guard ran.

I didn’t move. I didn’t blink. I just stared at Saige’s sleeping face, her breath warm against my neck, her words echoing over and over.

Don’t kill me again.

Why again?

What did she see?

What did she remember?

And why did a part of me—the part I never listened to—believe her?-----

I went back to the training ground to catch some air.

A soft wind passed through the training grounds, cold and sharp. It carried a scent I had not smelled in years. A scent tied to nightmares I could never explain.

Death.

My eyes lifted to the tree line.

Standing between the shadows was a robed figure, face hidden, watching me… watching Saige.

The air shifted.

A warning.

My wolf growled inside me, low and dangerous.

I tightened my grip on Saige.

Whoever—or whatever—stood in that shadow wasn’t here for me.

They were here for her.

The figure stepped back, melting into the forest as if it had never been there.

My heartbeat thundered.

This wasn’t an accident.

This wasn’t random.

Saige’s awakening, her collapsing, remembering his name, fearing him…

Someone wanted her broken before she could understand why.

And I suddenly knew one thing with absolute clarity:

I wasn’t going to let them have her.

Even if protecting her meant facing a past I couldn’t remember,

or becoming the monster she feared I once was.