Sloane's POV
I wake up on the ground with four men staring down at me.
No, wait. Not four. Three men and one confused husband.
My head is pounding. Every muscle in my body aches like I just ran a marathon. And there's something wrong with my memories—they feel scrambled, like someone took a puzzle and mixed up all the pieces.
"Sloane?" Dacian kneels beside me, his face tight with worry. "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course I know you," I say, sitting up slowly. "You're my husband. You're Dacian. We've been married for six years and..." I trail off because there are other memories pushing forward. Older memories. Memories that can't possibly be mine.
A battlefield covered in blood. Wolves the size of houses. A war that lasted a thousand years.
And three people I loved more than anything: Theron. Calix. Kieran.
"No," I whisper, pressing my hands to my head. "These aren't my memories. I've never been in a war. I'm a literature teacher. I live in a normal house with my normal husband and—"
"You're also Seraphine," the white-haired man says. Kieran. His name is Kieran and he's been searching for me for three thousand years and we were supposed to rule the first wolves together before everything went wrong.
How do I know that?
"Get away from her," Dacian growls at Kieran. "You've done enough damage."
"I saved her life," Kieran snaps back. "If I hadn't triggered the awakening, she would have died from the broken bond in a few months."
"You also nearly got us all killed by that Malachar thing!"
They're arguing but I can barely hear them. Two sets of memories are fighting in my head. In one set, I'm Sloane Mirren, twenty-eight years old, married to Dacian, struggling with a broken mate bond. In the other set, I'm Seraphine, ancient and powerful, one of the first Primordials, bonded to three males who are even older than I am.
Both sets of memories feel real.
Both feel like me.
"Sloane?" A gentle hand touches my shoulder. I look up and see Calix—except I also see someone else. A warrior with storm-gray eyes who fought beside me in the old wars. Who died protecting me from an enemy ambush. Who I mourned for centuries before we all went to sleep.
"You died," I whisper to him. "I watched you die."
Calix's eyes widen. "You remember that?"
"I remember everything." I look at Theron next. "You were there too. We were fighting the Corruption—the dark wolves who wanted to destroy the balance between our world and the human world. Calix was covering our retreat when they surrounded him. I tried to save him but there were too many."
Theron crouches down to my level. "That was three thousand years ago, Seraphine. We all died in that war. That's why we went to sleep—to be reborn in human vessels and wait for the right time to wake up again."
"But I didn't want to wake up," I say, and suddenly I'm crying. "I was happy being Sloane. I loved my simple life. I loved teaching and reading and drinking coffee on Sunday mornings with Dacian." I grab Dacian's hand desperately. "I don't want to be Seraphine. I want to be me."
Dacian squeezes my hand back. "You are you. Whatever else you are, you're still my Sloane."
"Is she though?" Kieran asks quietly. "The awakening was complete. I saw it. Seraphine took full control to fight Malachar. Usually when that happens, the human personality disappears completely."
"Well I'm still here!" I snap at him. "So maybe your 'usually' is wrong!"
Kieran looks surprised. Then he smiles. "Fascinating. You're fighting the awakening. Your human self is refusing to be overwritten."
"Can she do that?" Dacian asks.
"I've never heard of it happening before," Kieran admits. "But Seraphine was always stubborn. Maybe her human vessel inherited that trait."
I try to stand up and immediately get dizzy. Theron catches me before I fall. The second his hands touch my arms, that electric feeling shoots through me again. The mate bond, pulling me toward him.
Except now I understand why.
"We were bonded before," I say, looking between Theron and Calix. "In the old life. The three of us were mates."
"Four of us," Kieran corrects, pointing to himself. "You, me, Theron, and Calix. We were a mated quartet. Very rare, even among Primordials."
Dacian's hand tightens on mine. "So what you're saying is, my wife was always meant to be with them? Our entire marriage was just... what? A placeholder until her real mates showed up?"
"No!" I turn to face him. "Dacian, I loved you. I still love you. What we had was real."
"Was," he says bitterly. "Past tense."
"That's not what I meant—"
"It's exactly what you meant." He lets go of my hand and stands up. "You have your real mates now. The ones you were bonded to for thousands of years. What's six years compared to that?"
"Dacian, please—"
"I need some space," he says, his voice breaking. "I need to think."
He walks away toward the house. I try to follow but Calix holds me back. "Let him go. He needs time to process this."
"I'm losing him," I whisper. "I'm losing my husband because of memories I didn't ask for and a past life I don't remember choosing."
"You're not losing him," Theron says gently. "You're just... changing. We all are."
"I don't want to change!" I pull away from both of them. "I want my normal life back! I want to wake up next to Dacian and eat breakfast together and talk about boring pack business and go to sleep in his arms!" The tears are coming faster now. "I want to be Sloane, not some ancient wolf goddess with three other mates and a crazy ex-boyfriend who accidentally unleashed a demon!"
"Hey," Kieran protests. "I'm not crazy. And Malachar is sealed away again."
"For how long?" I demand. "You said the Convergence broke the seal. What's stopping him from breaking out again?"
Kieran's expression darkens. "Nothing. Now that he knows we're awake, he'll keep trying to devour us. The only way to stop him permanently is to kill him."
"And how do we do that?"
"We don't," Calix says quietly. "We're not strong enough. Even with all four of us working together, Malachar is too powerful. We barely managed to push him back this time."
A horrible thought occurs to me. "So you're saying we're being hunted by an unkillable monster that feeds on Primordial power?"
"Basically, yes," Kieran confirms.
"Great. Just great." I sit down on the grass and put my head in my hands. "This day just keeps getting better."
Theron sits down next to me. "For what it's worth, I'm glad we found you again. Even if the circumstances are terrible."
"Me too," Calix says, sitting on my other side. "We've been searching for you for lifetimes, Seraphine. Or Sloane. Whoever you want to be."
"I don't know who I want to be," I admit. "Half of me wants to be Sloane and stay with Dacian and pretend none of this happened. The other half wants to be Seraphine and remember everything and be with you three like we were meant to be."
"You don't have to choose right now," Theron says.
"Yes, she does," Kieran interrupts. He's staring at something in the distance. "We all do. Because we have company."
I look where he's looking and my stomach drops.
At least twenty wolves are approaching the house. Big ones. Angry ones. And leading them is an older woman with silver hair and cold blue eyes.
Elder Lenora.
"Dacian Mirren!" she shouts. "Come out here and face your pack! We demand answers!"
Dacian emerges from the house, his jaw set. "What do you want, Lenora?"
"We felt the power surge," Lenora says, her eyes scanning over me, Theron, Calix, and Kieran. "The whole territory felt it. What have you done? What have you unleashed?"
"Nothing that concerns you," Dacian says coldly.
"Everything concerns me when it threatens the pack!" Lenora's eyes lock onto me. "Your mate reeks of ancient magic. Dark magic. The kind that destroys packs and kills innocents."
"Sloane hasn't done anything wrong," Dacian defends.
"Hasn't she?" Lenora smiles cruelly. "I did some research after you announced your insane plan to let her take multiple mates. Do you know what happens when a she-wolf bonds with three males at once?"
"Enlighten me," Dacian says.
"It creates a power nexus," Lenora says. "A concentration of magical energy so strong it attracts every dark thing in a hundred-mile radius. Your precious Sloane isn't just dying from a broken bond anymore. She's become a beacon for monsters."
My blood runs cold. "That's not true. Is it?"
Kieran's face is grim. "Actually... she might be right."
"What?" I stand up fast. "You said bonding with you three would save me!"
"It will save you from going feral," Kieran says. "But Lenora's correct about the power nexus. Four Primordials, all bonded together, creates an enormous amount of magical energy. And that energy attracts predators."
"Like Malachar," Calix realizes.
"Exactly like Malachar," Kieran confirms. "And he won't be the only one. Every dark entity within sensing range will be drawn here."
Lenora's smile widens. "So you've not only broken pack law, Dacian. You've also turned your territory into a target. I'd say that's grounds for immediate removal as Alpha, wouldn't you?"
The wolves behind her growl in agreement.
Dacian doesn't back down. "This pack has been mine for fifteen years. You're not taking it from me because—"
He stops mid-sentence. His eyes go wide. He clutches his chest.
"Dacian?" I run toward him but he holds up a hand to stop me.
"Something's wrong," he gasps. "My wolf. It's—"
He screams.
And right before our eyes, his body starts to shift.
But he hasn't been able to shift in two years.
"That's impossible," I breathe.
Dacian falls to his knees, his bones cracking and reforming. Fur sprouts across his skin. His face elongates into a muzzle.
When the shift completes, a massive wolf stands where my husband was.
Not just any wolf.
An Alpha wolf. Bigger and stronger than before the attack.
Lenora steps back, her confidence cracking. "How—"
Dacian's wolf turns to look at me. His eyes aren't storm-gray anymore.
They're glowing pure silver.
Just like mine were when Seraphine took over.
"Oh no," Kieran whispers. "He bonded with the nexus. The power surge when you awakened—it didn't just affect you four. It affected everyone connected to you."
"What does that mean?" I ask, but I'm afraid I already know the answer.
Dacian's wolf opens his mouth and speaks in a voice that's his but also something older, something ancient:
"It means I'm not just an Alpha anymore. I'm a Primordial too. And I remember everything."