Kael woke up with blood on his hands.
He flung himself up, sheets tangled around his legs, his breath tearing from his lungs.
Moonlight streamed through the windows of his chamber, silver on the polished floor, but it did nothing to dispel the horror that clung to his skin.
Blood.
Blood.
So much blood.
He looked down.
His hands were untainted.
Spotlessly clean.
But he could still feel its heat coming through his fingers.
“Not…
The word slipped out in a breath.
His heart pounded against his ribs.
The dream.
It had come back.
Except this time…
It didn’t feel dream-like.
Rain clattered on a wooden platform.
A woman knelt in front of him.
Chains bit into her wrists until blood ran over broken wood.
Her black hair stuck to her face.
She tried to lift her head
To look at him.
He wanted to go.
To put a stop to whatever it was.
His body would not.
He was standing still in a sea of wolves.
Observing.
Someone yelled judgment.
The mob howled.
The executioner raised his sword.
The woman looked desperately at the faces.
Not sympathy.
For him.
Then she found him.
Eyes of Emerald. not filled with hate…
But heartbreak.
Kael…
Kael…
The sound broke something deep inside him.
He advanced.
His wolf howled.
Get out of the way!
He could not.
He was held by invisible chains.
Down went the blade of the executioner.
Across the square came a scream.
Then— Kael was jolted back to the real world.
His room was still save for his gasping breath.
Sweat poured off his back.
His heart wouldn’t calm down.
There came a sharp knock at the door.
Rowan’s voice.
“Alpha?” You awake?
Kael wiped a hand over his face.
I am up.”
The captain came in, and saw at a glance the condition of the man.
“”You look like you’ve been fighting an army.”
Kael forced himself to his feet.
“I didn’t sleep too well.
Rowan frowned.
“Again? ”
Again.
For almost a week sleep had been an enemy.
Night after night there had been fragments of the same impossible dream.
Rain.
Blood.
Chains
A woman whom he had no business to know by sight.
But somehow…
He did.
“What time is it?
Shortly before daybreak.
“You wanted the early training.”
Kael looked out the window.
Education
Yes.
Maybe so tired he’d shut up whatever was after him.
“I’m coming.
The training grounds rang to the clash of steel.
Warriors moved in disciplined formation in the early morning light.
Peace followed Kael here, usually.
Every hit.
All command.
Each breath he controlled was a reminder of who he was.
An α.
A leader.
Today…
None of them did .Again!”
His sword struck Rowan’s, and the force of the blow sent sparks flying.
The captain stumbled away.
Without warning Kael struck.
One hit.
Two.
Three.
Faster.
Stronger.
Rowan barely deflected the final blow before hitting one knee.
“Enough.
Kael laid down his weapon.
You hesitated.
Rowan breathed.
“No.” He looked Kael in the eye.
You did.
Silence fell between them.
Kael frowned.
I do not hesitate.” “You never did.
Words were in the air.
Nearby warriors resumed their quiet training, pretending not to listen.
Rowan stepped closer, his voice dropping.
You’re distracted.
I’m tired.” “”No.” The captain shook his head.
“Something’s in your purse.”
Kael looked away.
That’s not the way it works.
That morning, later on…
Kael was alone under the ancient oak overlooking the estate.
The wind was full of the smell of pine and new earth.
It usually calmed his wolf.
Today his wolf paced inside him, restless.
She’s in pain.
Kael stiffened.
“What?
It had come from inside.
His own wolf.
That was nothing new.
What was weird…
There was certainty in it.
She is hurting.
Kael closed his eyes.
“Who?”
His wolf responded at once.
Our companion.
The word hit him harder than a sword.
Mate.
Seraphina.
He opened his eyes.
‘No.’ He’d spent years believing the link between them was weak.
Far off.
More political than intuitive.
Then why …
Why did he suddenly feel a grief that was not his own?
His chest felt the weight of a crushing sorrow.
It wasn’t made up.
It was real.
His breathing was ragged.
Again, fragments of the nightmare flickered through his mind.
Rain
Chains .
Emerald eyes brimming with tears.
The unbearable feeling that he had let someone down.
No. .
.
He clutched the oak’s rough bark until his knuckles were white.
This isn’t real.
His wolf howled.
It is.
Kael shook his head.
“I would remember.
Would you?’
The question shut him up.
He had nothing to say.
And away cross the place …
Seraphina stopped in the middle of the library.
She closed her hand over the book she was reading.
For some reason she couldn’t put…
A wave of sadness came over her.
Not hers.
Others.
Recognizable.
Shattered.
Her wolf lifted its head slowly.
He recalls pain…
Seraphina frowned.
“What are you on about?”
But the wolf did not reply.
Or rather….
The strangeness went away as suddenly as it had come.
Seraphina looked out the window. to the far training fields.
A quiet unease began to creep into her heart.
The warriors had gone back inside, but Kael remained under the oak for a long time.
He’d dealt with rogue Alphas.
Bloodthirsty hybrids
Council trials.
And not one of them had ever shaken him as one dream did.
For dreams didn’t leave tracks.
His wolf did not mourn for dreams.
He did not doubt his own memories because of dreams.
But this one didn’t.
And in the depths of…
The thought was terrifying.
What if it was no dream at all?
Kael stood beneath the ancient oak and waited until the training grounds had cleared.
The morning sun climbed higher, warming the ground beneath his boots.
He did not feel it.
His mind could not let go of the woman in his dream.
The fear in her emerald eyes.
The look of unbearable disappointment on her face.
Most haunting…
She did not beg for her life.
She had been looking for only him.
Like his choice was more important than the executioner’s blade.
Alpha.”
Rowan’s voice pulled him back to reality.
The warriors are waiting for today’s patrol assignments.
Kael reflexively nodded.
“I’m coming.
None.
Not in my head.
The command tent buzzed with low conversation.
Maps on the center table.
Scouts brought word from other lands.
Kael was a man who noticed everything.
Today the words floated together.
“secure western border…”… rogue activity has fallen….
.
. the southern patrol returned at dawn.
.
.
.
It didn’t reach him.
But…
His mind played the dream again.
Once more.
And once more.
Until one piece of information jumped out.
The chains”
He had seen them plain.
Black iron.
Carved with the runes of the Council.
His face hardened.
“I’ve never seen chains like that,” he said.
So what made his mind conjure such elaborate markings?
Or if …
”
It had not thought of them at all.
Alpha?” ”
“Say that again,” asked a scout.
Kael blinked.
What did you say?”
““the northern patrol.
“They’re asking if they should rotate tonight.”
“Sure.
Rowan scowled.
“We already rotated them yesterday.”
Quiet.
Several warriors looked at each other nervously.
Kael remembered the patrol schedules.
Never.
He took a deep breath.
“Sorry.”
The room was silent.
There was no word.
But everyone had seen.
The meeting was over and Kael headed to the archives beneath the manor.
If sleep did not bring him peace…
History might give him an answer.
The old librarian looked up in surprise.
Alpha.” “I need records.” What kind?”
Kael halted.
How was he going to explain this?
I want all that is connected to the public executions ordered by the Council.
The old wolf frowned.
””There haven’t been many.
“I understand.” Back how far?”
Kael answered automatically.
“Twenty years. The librarian vanished behind the shelves. A few minutes later he returned with three weather-beaten ledgers. That’s all there is left.”
Kael thanked him, and sat by himself. hour upon hour…
He flipped through yellowed pages.
Names.
Offenses.
Sentences
All executions had been recorded in minute detail.
Except everything…
Hers.
No woman with eyes of emerald.
No moon.
No execution like his dream.
Nada.
He shut the last ledger.
“So why do I recall it?”
That night….
It started to rain.
A light rain early.
Then heavier.
.
.
.
Kael stood frozen by the library window.
Rain.
His chest constricted.
The dream.
Another memory came to mind unbidden.
Not yet finished.
A mere fragment.
The laughter of a little girl.
And then silence.
Then a woman screaming for help.
My son!
Pain blossomed behind his eyes.
He stepped back, shoving a chair to the floor.
The librarian hurried over.
Alpha!
I’m okay.
“You don’t look so good.
Kael put his hands on the table.
His heart was racing.
Inside him his wolf howled.
Locate her.
Kael squeezed his eyes shut.
“Why?”
Because she is breaking.
He answered without hesitation.
Not so.
*Felt.
The link.
The mates’ bond.
It pulsed through him, like some invisible throb.
Feeble
Uneasy.
But definitely legit.
Never had he felt it so clearly…
Ever.
All around the estate…
Seraphina was standing alone on the balcony outside her room.
The rain drenched her hair.
She didn’t budge.
The cool water helped to keep the memories that threatened to come back down.
Close.
Then her wolf raised its head.
He is watching for us.
Seraphina scowled.
No.” “Yes.” “He doesn’t remember.
There was a long silence.
Then…
His heart remembers before his mind.
The words disturbed her more than they should have.
That was even a thing?
Could the bond recall what the Alpha himself had forgotten?
The estate was swallowed by night.
Most of the servants were in bed.
The corridors were silent.
Kael sat in his study, staring into the fireplace.
He had spent hours trying to convince himself that the dreams meant nothing.
He didn’t.
All his instincts told him somebody was hurting.
He was connected to someone.
Someone he’d already failed once.
His wolf spoke once more.
This time…
There was no stop.
Go to her.
Kael slowly rose to his feet.
The rational mind told him to stay.
Pride told him to forget the impossible dreams.
Duty told him tomorrow would be soon enough.
His wolf ignored all three of them.
Go.
Kael went for his cloak.
Outside…
The night sky was filled with thunder.
Without a second thought….
He stood up, left his chambers, and disappeared into the rain.
His destination was one of a kind
Seraphina.