Kael's POV
I run through the forest until my wolf form can't run anymore, then I shift back to human and keep running on two legs. My neck is on fire where that cursed mate mark appeared, and no amount of distance makes the burning stop.
This can't be happening.
I killed Lila. I watched the life leave her eyes. I felt her pulse stop under my fingers.
I buried her myself in the old ceremonial cave because despite everything, she deserved that much. Three days ago, I laid her body on the stone altar, covered her with white flowers, and sealed the entrance with rocks. I didn't let anyone else touch her.
That was my kill. My responsibility. My guilt to carry.
Except now she's alive, and everything I thought I knew is wrong.
I finally stop running when I reach the cliff overlooking the Frostclaw valley. Three moons hang overhead, casting silver light across our territory. My territory. The one my grandfather bled for. The one my mother died protecting.
The mate mark burns hotter, and I slam my fist into a tree trunk. The bark explodes under my knuckles, and blood runs down my hand.
"Control yourself," I mutter. "She's just another female. Figure out what's happening and deal with it."
But my wolf is losing his mind inside my head, howling that our mate is alive, that we need to go back to her, protect her, claim her properly this time.
No. I shove the wolf down hard. She's not Lila. She said so herself.
Maya. That's what she called herself. Maya-who-took-a-bullet-for-a-child. Maya-who-doesn't-understand-our-ways. Maya-with-the-purple-eyes-and-different-scent.
But she's wearing Lila's face. Lila's body. And the mate bond connected to her the second her heart started beating again.
I don't believe in magic or resurrections or second chances. I believe in what I can see, smell, and kill. Yet here I am, with a dead mate who came back as someone else.
"Alpha Kael!"
I spin around to find Luca, my younger cousin and second-in-command, running up the cliff path. He's out of breath, his dark hair wild.
"What?" I snap.
"The council is demanding answers." Luca stops a few feet away, probably sensing my foul mood. "Word's spreading that Lila's alive. Half the clan thinks it's a miracle. The other half thinks it's dark magic."
"It's neither." I turn back to the valley. "Someone else is in her body."
Luca is quiet for a moment. Then: "That's... actually worse. Kael, if the elders find out—"
"They won't." I face him. "Not until I figure out what's really going on."
My cousin's eyes drop to my neck, and his face goes pale. "The mate mark. It activated?"
I yank my collar up to hide it. "Don't say anything."
"This is insane." Luca runs his hands through his hair. "You killed your mate for refusing additional bonds. Now she's back, but not really her, and the bond still formed? The council will execute her for witchcraft. They'll execute you for hiding it."
He's right. Our laws are clear—dark magic means death. And what else could explain a dead female coming back to life with a different soul inside?
But something stops me from agreeing to turn Maya over to the council.
Maybe it's the way she looked at me in that cave, terrified but defiant. The way she called our laws terrible even though I could have killed her for it. The way she said she was a healer who saved lives.
Lila never showed that kind of courage. She was soft, gentle, too breakable for this harsh world. That's why I had to—
No. I'm not going down that path again.
"Give me three days," I tell Luca. "Keep the council distracted. Tell them I'm investigating possible witchcraft but need time to gather evidence."
"And what are you really doing?"
"Finding out if Maya is a threat or..." I hesitate. "Or something else."
Luca studies me with worried eyes. "You feel it, don't you? The mate pull. It's making you protect her."
"I feel nothing," I lie.
My cousin doesn't believe me. I don't believe me either.
The mate bond isn't like the stories say—all instant love and perfect harmony. It's a burning in your blood, a constant awareness of your mate's location and emotions. Right now, I can feel Maya's fear bleeding through the connection, mixed with exhaustion and confusion.
She's scared of me. Good. She should be.
But underneath her fear is something else. Something fierce and stubborn that won't break no matter how much I threaten her.
Just like I broke Lila, my wolf whispers. She begged you to stop, and you didn't listen.
I shove that memory away violently.
"I'm going back to check on her," I tell Luca. "Make sure she hasn't run."
"You just came from there."
"The bond is unstable. I need to monitor it." Another lie. The truth is I can't stand being this far from her. The mark on my neck feels like it's trying to drag me back to that cave.
Luca sighs. "Fine. But Kael? Be careful. If this Maya person really is from another world like she claims, we have no idea what she's capable of."
He's right about that too.
I shift back into wolf form and race toward the burial cave, following the mate bond like a compass pointing north. My paws eat up the distance in minutes.
When I'm a hundred yards away, I stop and shift back to human. I approach quietly, listening for any sign that she tried to escape.
Instead, I hear crying.
Soft, broken sobs that make something twist in my chest.
I peer around the cave entrance and freeze.
Maya is curled up on the stone floor, hugging her knees to her chest, tears streaming down her face. Her whole body shakes with each sob.
"I just wanted to save him," she whispers to no one. "I just wanted Tommy to be okay. Why did this happen? Why did I have to die? Why am I here?"
She sounds so lost. So alone.
Like I felt the night my mother died and my father fell apart.
Before I can stop myself, I step into the cave. "You're crying."
Maya's head snaps up, and she quickly wipes her tears, trying to look strong again. But her eyes are red and puffy, and her hands are shaking.
"I'm fine," she says.
"You're not." I stay near the entrance, giving her space. "The bond lets me feel your emotions. You're terrified and grieving."
She laughs bitterly. "Of course I am. I died, got shoved into a dead woman's body, and now I'm stuck in a cave with the man who murdered her. Plus there's a voice in my head giving me quests like I'm in some twisted video game." She meets my eyes. "So yeah, I'm not having a great night."
Something about her honesty cracks my defenses a little.
"What's a video game?" I ask before I can stop myself.
She blinks. "It's—never mind. You wouldn't understand."
We stare at each other across the cave. The mate bond hums between us, warm and insistent.
"I didn't want to kill Lila," I say suddenly. The words come out before I can stop them. "She gave me no choice."
"There's always a choice." Maya's voice is hard. "You chose violence."
"I chose my clan's survival over one female's defiance."
"And how's that working out for you?"
Before I can answer, a sound echoes through the forest—a howl, but not from my pack. This one is wrong, twisted, filled with dark magic that makes my fur stand on end.
Maya hears it too. She stands up, her face pale. "What was that?"
I move to the cave entrance and smell the air. My blood runs cold.
Shadow beasts. A hunting pack, maybe fifteen strong, and they're headed straight for us.
But that's impossible. Shadow beasts don't hunt this close to Frostclaw territory. We have protections, barriers, ancient magic that keeps them out.
Unless someone brought them here on purpose.
I turn back to Maya. "We need to leave. Now."
"Why? What's out there?"
"Something that wants you dead." I shift partially, letting my claws extend. "And it found you less than an hour after you woke up."
Maya's face goes white. "You think someone sent them for me?"
The howls get closer. Through the mate bond, I feel her terror spike.
"I think," I say slowly, "someone in my clan wants to make sure Lila stays dead this time."
And they're willing to unleash dark magic to do it.
Which means whoever killed Lila the first time wasn't me at all.