Ragnar's pov
The ley lines were abnormally high. I stood in my father's study, staring at the monitors Torin had set up, watching the power readings spike into territory that shouldn't exist. Red alerts flashed across every screen like someone was having a panic attack in code form.
"This is impossible," Draven said behind me. He'd been pacing for the last ten minutes, which was his version of freaking out. "The purge was complete, we eliminated every evolved bloodline twenty years ago."
"Apparently not," I said.
"Don't be flippant, Ragnar."
"I'm not being flippant, I'm being accurate." I pointed at the largest spike on the screen. "That reading is coming from the human side of the territory, someone over there is causing this, and according to your very thorough genocide, they shouldn't exist."
Draven's jaw tightened. "It could be residual energy. An artifact….."
"It's not an artifact, it's a person." Torin entered the study, tablet in hand. "I've triangulated the source, it's moving. Currently at a residence about fifteen miles from the border."
"A residence," I repeated. "So someone's just casually sitting in their living room causing a supernatural power surge that's destabilizing our entire territory?"
"Appears so."
Fantastic. Three days before my coronation, and the universe decides to throw me a curveball wrapped in a mystery and lit on fire.
"We need to investigate," Draven said. "This could be a threat to the pack."
"Everything is a threat to the pack according to you." I grabbed my jacket. "But yes, we're investigating. Torin, get a team together, discreetly. I don't need this turning into an incident."
"And if it is one of the evolved bloodlines?" Draven's voice was cold. "If somehow one survived?"
"Then we'll deal with it."
"Like I dealt with them before?"
I looked at my father. The man who'd ordered the execution of entire family lines because he was afraid of what they might become. The man I'd usurped because his paranoia was going to destroy us all.
"No," I said. "Not like you dealt with them."
Two hours later, I was regretting every decision that had led me to this moment.
The power signature had moved from a quiet residential neighborhood to a raging house party full of drunk college students.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered, watching from the tree line as bass-heavy music pounded from the windows. "The great supernatural threat is at a frat party?"
"Readings are strongest near the back of the property," Torin said, checking his tablet. "And they're getting stronger."
"Of course they are." I surveyed the crowd, red cups everywhere. People stumbling across the lawn. Someone was crying in the bushes. "Which one is it?"
"Unknown, but whoever it is, they're about to manifest. The full moon is at its peak, and they're..." He stopped, eyes widening at his screen. "Ragnar, the signature just doubled."
"Doubled?"
"It's spiking fast, we need to move now."
We split up, moving through the party like shadows. Most of the humans were too drunk to notice, the ones who did notice probably thought we were cops, based on how quickly they scattered.
I found her on the back deck.
Young, early twenties with dark hair swaying on her feet like she'd had about six drinks too many. She was staring up at the moon with an expression that was half confusion, half terror.
The power oozing off her made my skin prickle.
And then she turned slightly, and the mate bond slammed into me like a freight train.
Every nerve in my body lit up. My wolf surged forward, demanding I go to her, claim her, protect her. The pull was so strong I actually took a step forward before I caught myself.
No, this wasn't possible, I was engaged to Briella. The Moon Goddess had ordained Briella as my Luna, my coronation was in three days, and now this drunk college girl swaying on a deck was pulling at something deep in my chest like she owned it?
"That's her," Torin said in my ear through the comm. "Power signature matches exactly."
I couldn't move. The mate pull was insistent, overwhelming, my wolf was clawing at me, furious that I wasn't already at her side.
Get it together, Ragnar.
She stumbled, and some college kid caught her arm, and jealousy flared so hot in my chest I nearly shifted right there.
She tried to speak, but her eyes rolled back.
"Now," I said into the comm.
We moved fast. Torin grabbed her before she could hit the ground. The college kid started to protest, but I shoved him aside.
"Medical emergency," I said. "We're with her family."
It was a lie, but humans believed what they wanted to believe. We had her in the vehicle before anyone could ask questions.
"Sedate her," I told Torin. "Heavy dose, we don't know when she'll manifest."
He jabbed the syringe into her neck. She didn't even flinch, already unconscious.
"She's young," Torin said. "And she has no idea what she is."
"How do you know?"
"Look at her." He nodded at the girl slumped in the seat. "She's wearing a college sweatshirt. She was at a party, if she knew she was a supernatural hybrid, she wouldn't be living like a human."
He had a point. "Who is she?" I asked.
Torin checked her ID. "Sable Reed, twenty-two. She's a student at the local university." He paused. "Her mother is Anna Reed, she works at Meridian Pharmaceuticals."
"The doctor?"
"Yes, and according to this, Anna Reed has no listed husband. Sable's father isn't on any official documents."
Interesting.
"Run a background check on both of them. I want to know everything."
We got her back to the stronghold just as the moon hit its peak.
I should've sedated her heavier. One second she was unconscious in the holding cell, the next, she was awake and screaming.
The scream didn't sound anything human at all instead it was something primal, ancient.
"Get back!" I shoved Torin behind me as the girl's body started to convulse.
Her bones were breaking, reforming but not into a wolf, into something else. Something I'd never seen before.
Magic erupted from her skin in waves of raw power making the walls crack and the torches explode.
And her eyes, when she opened them, they were pure white light.
"Restrain her!" Draven appeared in the doorway. "Before she…."
She moved faster than anything I had ever seen. One second she was in the cell and the next, she had my father by the throat, slamming him against the wall hard enough to crack the stone further.
"Get off him!" I grabbed her arm and felt like I'd touched a live wire. Power surged through me, burning.
She threw me across the room without even looking.
Torin hit her with another sedative, then another. She didn't even slow down.
Draven was gasping, his face turning purple. The girl—Sable—held him with one hand, her expression blank. She wasn't seeing us. She was somewhere else, lost in whatever transformation was ripping through her.
I forced myself up, every muscle screaming. "Sable! Stop!"
Her head turned toward me.
For one second, I saw her in there, confused and terrified, then she dropped my father and collapsed.
The power signature vanished like someone had flipped a switch.
Torin caught her before she hit the ground. "She's out."
I ran to Draven. He was breathing, but barely. Blood trickled from his mouth. His eyes were glassy.
"Get him to the healers," I said. "Now."
They carried him out.
I looked down at the girl, her unconscious body lying on the floor. She looked so normal now, like any other college student sleeping off a hangover.
Except she'd just put my father in critical condition with her bare hands and magic that shouldn't exist. And she was my fated mate.
"What do we do with her?" Torin asked.
Good question.
I could kill her, It would be the smart move, the safe move. One less evolved bloodline in the world.
But the bond pulling at my chest stopped me.
"Chain her," I said. "Iron, reinforced and get me a full blood analysis. I want to know exactly what she is."
"And when she wakes up?"
I looked at the unconscious girl who'd just single-handedly turned my coronation week into a nightmare.
"When she wakes up, we're going to have a very interesting conversation."
***********
The blood results came back three hours later.
I read them twice because the first time I thought I'd misread.
"This can't be right," I said.
Torin nodded, as if confirming my surprise."I had them run it three times, it's accurate."
Sable Reed wasn't just an evolved bloodline.
She was a hybrid. A blend of wolf and witch, from two of the most powerful extinct bloodlines.
And according to the genetic markers, her father was Sage Reed.
The Sage Reed. The visionary my father had supposedly executed twenty years ago. How's that possible?
"What's your plan?" Torin asked.
I looked at the blood report and the power readings, and I made a decision that would either save my pack or destroy it.
"I'm going to marry her."
Torin blinked. "Excuse me?"