The mark

The words echoed in my skull like a bell tolling in an empty church.

Kael didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. Like what he said was normal. Like people remembered their past lives all the time.

“Are you messing with me?” I asked, forcing a laugh that sounded brittle, hollow.

“No.”

“You think I’m… reincarnated?”

“I don’t think,” he said quietly. “I know.”

I swallowed hard, the room suddenly feeling smaller, the walls closing in. “That’s insane.”

“So is an omega without a wolf triggering a mate bond.” His eyes sharpened. “And you almost destroyed me yesterday because of it.”

I froze. “Destroyed… you?”

“Yes,” he said, calm as ice but darker than the shadows in the room. “If you’d lost control fully, the consequences… would have been fatal. Not for me. For you.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “I… I don’t understand.”

“You will,” he said, voice low, almost a growl. “But first, you need to see this.”

He stepped past me, pulling open a hidden panel in the wall. Behind it, a dusty leather-bound book lay waiting, sealed with a crimson ribbon.

He opened it. The page revealed a charcoal sketch of a woman surrounded by flames, familiar, impossible.

My breath caught.

“She was a rogue witch,” Kael said softly. “Accused of killing a High Alpha. Captured by the Council. Burned at the stake a century ago.”

“Her… her name?”

“Lyra.”

The word felt like a blade slicing through the air.

I staggered back, trembling. “That’s… not possible.”

“She screamed your name before she died,” he continued, his voice low, steady. “That’s how I remembered.”

I shook my head. “Why tell me this? Why now?”

Kael stepped closer, eyes like silver knives. “Because it’s waking. You’re her, and the energy, the magic, it’s stirring. And it’s dangerous.”

I backed up, panic clawing my throat. “Dangerous how? To who? To me?”

“To all of us,” he said, jaw tight. “The Council will sense it soon. They’ve waited a hundred years for this moment.”

I swallowed. “And what about you? You… you risked everything for me before. Why now?”

His gaze softened, almost too fast. “Because we were mates then. And now we are again. I won’t fail you twice.”

Something twisted inside me, anger, fear, disbelief. “You talk about bonds and past lives while standing here like you have all the answers. I don’t even know who I am!”

Kael’s lips thinned. “You’re the most dangerous being I’ve ever known. But you don’t believe it yet. And that… is exactly what makes you lethal.”

My chest burned. “So… I’m supposed to be grateful? That I’m a reincarnated witch with magic I can’t control and an Alpha who seems to think he owns me?”

He stepped closer, the air between us snapping with tension. “Owning you?” His voice sharpened. “I’m keeping you alive. But don’t mistake protection for affection. You survive because I need you alive. Not because I care if you like it.”

The words landed like stones.

I stumbled back, hitting the edge of the table. “Then… then what am I supposed to do?”

Kael’s eyes flickered gold, and the silver faded. “Survive. Control it. Don’t let them” He cut himself off, jaw tightening. “Don’t let them take you before you remember everything.”

I glanced down, my hands shaking. “Take me? Who?”

His eyes darkened. “The Council. Hunters. People who won’t stop until you’re ashes.”

A chill raced down my spine. “Ashes… like her?”

“Yes. And if you’re weak…” He let the words hang. “…you won’t even have a chance to fight.”

I felt the mark on my back flare, almost searing through my skin. Pain, fire, memory. I screamed, spinning around.

Kael caught my wrist before I could collapse. “Control it. Focus.”

“I… I can’t!”

“You can,” he said sharply. “Because if you don’t, they’ll be here sooner than you think. And I can’t stop them if you fail.”

The threat hung in the air like a blade poised over my heart.

And then, before I could speak, the door burst open. Dax’s face was pale.

“They’re coming,” he gasped.

Kael’s jaw tightened. “How soon?”

“Minutes,” Dax said.

I stumbled back, terror biting at my chest. “Minutes?”

Kael stepped in front of me, silent, cold, and immovable. “Stay behind me. Or die.”

The fire on my back flared brighter. And in that moment, I knew: I was no longer safe. Not ever.