Kael's POV
The spy's blood dripped onto the black stone floor of my throne room, making a sound like a clock ticking. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Three years. One thousand and ninety-five days since Sera vanished from our bed. And this pathetic wolf kneeling before me had nothing.
"Please," the spy begged, his voice shaking. "I swear I don't know anything about your mate—"
"Wrong answer." I didn't raise my voice. I didn't need to.
My second-in-command, Damien, stepped forward from the shadows. "Kael, maybe we should—"
"Kill him." I leaned back on my throne, feeling the familiar ache in my chest where the mate bond pulsed. Faint. Distant. But still there. She was alive somewhere. I just couldn't reach her.
The spy's eyes went wide with terror. "No! Wait! I heard something—a rumor about the Crescent Moon Pack—"
I was off my throne before he finished speaking, my hand wrapped around his throat. My wolf surged forward, making my eyes glow gold. "What about Crescent Moon?"
"They—they have a healer," he choked out. "Silver-blonde hair. Violet eyes. She appeared three years ago with no memory—"
The world stopped.
Violet eyes. Only one bloodline had violet eyes. The Ashford line.
Sera's bloodline.
"Where?" My fingers tightened. "WHERE?"
"The Northern Alliance peace summit," he gasped. "Tonight. She'll be there with Alpha Marcus Reid. His fiancée—"
I threw him across the room. He hit the wall with a crack that might have been bones breaking. I didn't care.
Sera was alive. Sera had been found. And she was wearing another man's ring.
The mate bond in my chest exploded with pain so intense I nearly dropped to my knees. Three years of searching. Three years of going slowly insane. And she'd been with Marcus Reid the entire time?
"Kael." Damien's voice cut through my rage. "Think about this. If it's really her—"
"It's her." I knew it in my bones. The mate bond was screaming at me now, like it had been trying to tell me something all along. "Marcus took her. He's had her for three years."
Damien's face went hard. "Then we get her back."
I touched the mating mark on my chest—the wolf and moon symbol that proved Sera was mine. My wife. My queen. The only person in this world who'd ever made me feel human instead of like the monster everyone said I was.
Someone had stolen her from me. Erased her memories. Made her forget we were bonded.
And Marcus Reid was going to pay for it in blood.
"Gather the warriors," I ordered. "Every single one. We're going to the summit."
"We weren't invited," Damien said carefully. "If we attack a peace summit—"
"I don't care about their peace." My voice came out as a growl. "They took my mate. They're going to give her back, or I'll burn their precious alliance to the ground."
Damien studied me for a long moment. "You know she might not remember you. If they erased her memories—"
"Then I'll make her remember." I headed for the door, my wolf clawing at my insides. After three years of barely holding myself together, I finally had a direction. A target. A purpose beyond revenge.
Sera was alive. And I was bringing her home.
Even if I had to tear apart the entire Northern Alliance to do it.
The spy groaned from where I'd thrown him. I'd forgotten he was still alive.
"What do we do with him?" Damien asked.
I should kill him. That's what I'd done to every other scout who'd brought me useless information. But this one had given me Sera's location.
"Let him go," I said. "He just saved his own life."
Damien's eyebrows shot up. I never showed mercy. Not anymore. Not since the night I woke up to an empty bed and a mate bond that felt like it was being strangled.
But today was different. Today, I had hope for the first time in three years.
And hope made me dangerous in a whole new way.
I strode through Blackstone Keep, rogues scrambling out of my path. They'd learned to fear me. Good. Fear kept them loyal. Fear kept them alive.
The only person who'd never feared me was Sera.
She used to touch my face and smile like I was something precious instead of something broken. She used to heal wolves I'd nearly killed in fits of rage, then scold me for losing control. She used to sleep curled against my chest, trusting me completely even though I was a monster.
And then she was gone.
I'd searched everywhere. Tortured informants. Burned villages. Went to war with three different packs. Nothing worked. The mate bond told me she was alive, but I couldn't find her.
Because Marcus had been hiding her. Keeping her drugged or spelled or whatever he'd done to make her forget me.
My hands clenched into fists. When I got my hands on Marcus Reid, his death would take days.
"Kael." Damien caught up to me. "If this is a trap—"
"I don't care." I kept walking. "If there's even a chance it's her, I'm taking it."
"And if she doesn't want to come back?" Damien asked quietly. "If she's happy with him?"
I stopped walking. Turned to face my second-in-command. My oldest friend. The only person brave enough to question me anymore.
"She's my mate," I said softly. Dangerously. "She belongs with me. Whatever Marcus did to her, whatever lies he told her, I'm going to fix it."
"Even if fixing it means taking her by force?"
"Yes." I didn't hesitate. Couldn't afford to. "I've been dying without her, Damien. Slowly going feral. You've seen it. Everyone's seen it. If I don't get her back, there won't be anything left of me worth saving."
Damien's expression softened. "Then let's go get our queen."
Hours later, I stood at the edge of the forest surrounding the Northern Alliance's summit grounds. Five hundred of my best warriors waited behind me, silent as shadows.
Inside those walls, pack Alphas from across the region celebrated their precious peace. They'd built their alliance to protect themselves from rogues like me. From the Shadowlands I ruled with an iron fist.
They should have protected Sera instead.
The mate bond pulled at me, stronger than it had been in years. She was close. So close I could almost smell her scent—lavender and moonlight.
"On my signal," I told Damien. "We surround the summit. No one gets in or out until I have her."
"And if they fight?"
My smile was all teeth. "Then they die."
I was about to give the order when I felt it—a surge in the mate bond so powerful it nearly drove me to my knees.
She was here. Right now. Inside those walls.
And something was very, very wrong.
The bond pulsed with fear. With pain. With something that felt like... awakening?
"Now!" I roared. "MOVE NOW!"
My warriors burst from the trees. War horns blasted. Screams erupted from inside the summit.
But I was already running, following the mate bond like a lifeline. Nothing else mattered. Not the peace summit. Not the alliance. Not even my own life.
Only her.
I crashed through the summit gates, my wolf fully surfaced, and froze.
In the center of the chaos, kneeling beside a wounded guard with her hands glowing violet, was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.
Silver-blonde hair. Delicate features. And those eyes—those impossible violet eyes that had haunted my dreams for three years.
Sera.
My mate.
Alive.
She looked up at me, and the world stopped. Our eyes locked—violet meeting gold—and the mate bond roared to life between us like wildfire.
But there was no recognition in her gaze. No love. No memory of us.
Just fear.
And on her finger, gleaming in the firelight, was Marcus Reid's engagement ring.