All for her.
I still could not believe this was real. That I was truly in the human lands, mated to one of their kind. My brother would be shocked as hell. Aurion had always insisted that waiting for a fated mate was foolish. That I should take a chosen mate and produce heirs for the kingdom.
Ha. If only he could see me now.
Longing hit me suddenly, sharp and unexpected. Everything had been so hectic since I arrived in this world that I had not had time to think about what I had left behind. Family. Kingdom. Life.
I had been in the middle of a challenge for the throne when the portal pulled me through. Andreas fucking Silver, son of one of the noble families, had decided that because I had not been born in Ravenor, I had no right to rule it.
As if I had not won the throne legally. As if I had not killed Gallahan Emwood in fair combat.
Dark thoughts filled my mind as I ran. Gallahan - my father’s best friend, the man I had trusted my entire life, and my godfather.
I had looked up to him, stayed in Ravenor for months at a time with him when I was young, and it had become a second home. Gallahan had taught me to fight, to strategize, to rule.
But it was not until I was older that I understood the ugly, terrible truth.
King Gallahan was not a good man.
My best friend had died in an attack on the eastern border. Killed by what we thought were rogue wolves. But I had discovered later - much later - that Gallahan himself had organized it. Had sent those rogues. Had orchestrated my friend’s death to gain sympathizers, to rally the nobles around him against a supposed external threat.
I had walked the streets of Ravenor after that. Talked to the people. Seen the truth with my own eyes.
The kingdom was not thriving, only the rich were. The common wolves struggled, starved, and suffered while Gallahan hoarded wealth and power. So I had challenged him, to everyone’s surprise, and I had won.
My family had supported me. My father had died before he could see me crowned, but Aurion - who had inherited our family’s throne in the neighboring kingdom, Noctherion, and defended it against all challenges - had been there. And our mother, Sorcha. I loved them both fiercely.
I wondered if they were worrying about me now. How had my disappearance looked from their perspective? One moment I had been in the challenge circle with Andreas, and the next... nothing. Had I simply vanished? Disappeared into thin air?
I remembered only the blinding, all-consuming light, and then Wen’s scent filling my senses, her face hovering above me, her voice telling me to leave. I stopped running and looked around, realizing with a jolt that I had gone too far into the woods. Much too far from my mate. Every instinct screamed at me to return, to be near her, to protect her.
My wolf agreed, whining anxiously. We turned and ran back the way we had come, pushing harder, faster-
Her shriek cut through the night.
Adrenaline flooded my veins. Terror unlike anything I had felt in battle seized my chest.
Was she being threatened? Attacked?
Why the fuck had I left her alone?
I ran faster than I ever had. Trees blurred past. My wounded ribs screamed in protest. I did not care.
The back door of the bookstore was open.
Open.
The first sign that something was very, very wrong.
I crashed through it, not bothering to slow down. Shifted mid-stride, bones cracking and reforming as I took the stairs two at a time.
“Get the fuck out!” Her voice. Terrified. Furious.
I burst through the apartment door.
My mate stood in the middle of the living room, holding a kitchen knife with shaking hands. A man dressed all in black was across from her, pointing a strange metal object at her chest.
Rage consumed me. Pure, feral, murderous rage.
