"Calm Down, Wolfie"

"Lyra!!" 

Kael’s voice boomed down the corridor... Fuck, he was searching for me.

​My heart slammed against my ribs like a battering ram. The gate issue hadn't taken him nearly as long as I’d hoped.

​"Lyra? Are you in the guest room?"

​I heard a door handle rattle down the hall, followed by a low curse from Kael when he realized my room was empty.

​Full panic flared in my chest, but I forced my hands to stay steady. I shoved the vault door shut and swung the portrait back into place. His footsteps were heading straight toward the study now...Fuck...at this rate, he would catch me here.

​"Lyra?"

​He was right outside the door.

​I looked around the dark room frantically. The doorknob began to turn, but thankfully I had locked it from inside too.

​"What the hell...?" Kael muttered from the other side, his tone instantly shifting from confused to dangerously alert.

​I hugged the stolen documents to my chest, my eyes darting toward the floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading out onto the second-floor balcony.

​

The doorknob rattled violently again, followed by a heavy, impatient bang against the wood. Was he...kicking his own door?

​"Lyra?" Kael’s voice turned lethal, the illusion of the gentle savior instantly evaporating. "I know you're in there. Open this door."

​"No," I whispered to myself, my breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps as I looked down at the stolen folders in my hands. "No, no, no... not again. I'm not going back into a cage."

​If Kael walked through that door and saw these documents in my arms, there would be no second chance. He wouldn't bother with the fake marriage or the long game this time. He would fast-track his plans, lock me in a cell, force my hand, and kill me all over again...only much faster this time.

​"Fuck...oh goddess no...if he catches me with these, he'll kill me tonight," I muttered, my teeth chattering as I backed toward the balcony. "He'll just slit my throat and take them from my cold hands."

​I clutched the Silverclaw deeds and his financial ledger so tightly against my chest my knuckles turned white.

​"I'd rather die," I said out loud, the words tasting like copper and ash on my tongue, but steadying the tremor in my chest. "I would rather break my own neck right now than let him steal my life for a second time. If I'm dying tonight, it's going to be on my terms."

​I unlocked the balcony latch, pushing the glass door open and stepping out into the cold night air. I leaned over the carved stone railing, looking down at the pitch-black darkness below.

​I squinted to look at the ground from up here better, near the edge of the courtyard, something was moving around the heavy bushes and shadows near the trees.

​"What is that?" I breathed, squinting into the shadows. "Did he really send his guards down there already?"

​My heart leaped into my throat, but I didn't have time to figure out what was moving in the dark, nor did I care.

​Behind me, the study door groaned loudly as Kael threw his full weight against it, the heavy wood splintering around the lock.

​"You're not taking my future again, Kael," I whispered to the empty air.

​I scrambled up, climbing the railings, the freezing wind whipping my silk robe around my bare legs. I closed my eyes, turned my face up toward the pale moonlight, and squeezed the documents against my heart.

​"Goddess, hear me," I prayed aloud, my voice cracking against the wind. "If you gave me this second life just to watch me fail, take my soul before he touches me. But if I am meant to rule... catch me."

​"Lyra, stop!" Kael roared as the study door bursted open behind me.

​"Not this time, psycho," I spat over my shoulder.

​I pushed off the ledge and plunged into the dark.

The wind roared in my ears, rushing past my face as the ground rushed up to meet me.

​Mom... Dad... I thought, my chest aching as the faces of my slaughtered parents flashed behind my closed eyes. I thought about their smiles, their love, their white hair that belonged to the people of my Northern clan. 

"I'm coming" I whispered, ready for everything to end.

​As the rushing air tore at my hair and robe, a sharp, bitter regret pierced through my resolve. I had clawed my way back from the dead, reclaimed my family's sacred deeds, and defied destiny...only to die in the dirt before I could even taste my revenge. And the saddest part of it all? As my life flashed before my eyes, I realized a tragic truth. I had lived and died twice, and I never even found my own fated mate. 

I never knew what it felt like to be truly claimed by someone meant just for me.

​I braced for the bone-shattering impact against the stone courtyard.

​Instead, a pair of impossibly strong arms wrapped around my waist, absorbing the brutal force of my fall with effortless strength.

​"Got you," a deep, rich voice murmured, vibrating right against my chest.

​Panic spiked through my veins with the force of a lightning strike. Kael. He must have used a shortcut or a pack-link jump to reach the courtyard before me. He caught me. It was all over.

​"Let me go!" I screamed, twisting violently in his grip, thrashing with every ounce of remaining strength. "Get your hands off me, you monster! I'd rather die than let you touch me...!"

​"Hush, wolfie. Calm down," the voice rumbled again. 

​I froze mid-thrash. 

Wolfie...

Only one person called me Wolfie. Only one person who I have hated since I was a teenager... He was the one person I hated the most in my past life.

I forced my terrified eyes open and looked up at the man holding me.

​The moonlight caught the edge of his face, illuminating his head full of thick, striking white hair that fell across his sharp, lethal jawline. 

​My eyes traveled up, locking onto a pair of piercing, intense grey eyes staring down at me.

​I stopped struggling entirely, my voice seizing in my throat as I finally recognized him.

​Alpha Cassian.