CHAPTER 3 – The Wolf Speaks

Lena's room was exactly as I remembered – training gear everywhere, photos of us covering one wall, the scent of her coconut shampoo. Safe. Familiar.

She closed the door and turned to face me, arms crossed. "Okay. Talk. What's going on?"

I stood there, trying to find words for the impossible. How do you tell someone you've died and come back? That you've lived eighteen months in a false bond that killed you and your baby? That tomorrow's ceremony is a trap?

"You're going to think I'm insane," I warned.

"Already thinking it. Keep going."

I took a breath. "What if I told you that I've already lived through this? That I mated Asher tomorrow, lived with him for eighteen months, and died?"

Lena stared at me. "That's... Kira, that doesn't make sense."

"I know." I pressed my hands to my temples, where my wolf was still howling. "But I remember it. All of it. The mating ceremony. Moving to his pack house. Getting pregnant. And then – " My voice cracked. "The miscarriage. Dying on his bedroom floor while Seraphine watched."

"Seraphine? Our healer?"

"She's a witch. She cursed Dad – look at his wrist next time you see him. Black veins. She created a false bond between Asher and me. I don't know why, but it killed me. And if I go through with the ceremony tomorrow, it'll happen again."

Lena was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke, her voice was careful. "Kira... stress can do strange things. Make us have vivid dreams, nightmares – "

"It wasn't a dream." I met her eyes. "I felt my baby die, Lena. I felt myself die. And then I woke up here, two years in the past, and my wolf is screaming that everything about Asher is wrong."

She studied my face. I could see her weighing it – her best friend having a breakdown the day before her mating, or something genuinely impossible happening.

"Even if I don't understand," she said finally, "even if I think you might need to talk to someone... I meant what I said. I won't give up on you. We'll figure this out."

Her loyalty always blurred her vision. But right now, I need it. And I'd take it.

"Thank you." I sank onto her bed. "I don't expect you to believe me. I can barely believe it myself. But I need you to trust me when I say tomorrow is wrong. The bond with Asher is wrong. And if I can't find a way to stop it – "

"Then we'll find a way." Lena sat beside me, taking my hand. "Together. Like always."

My throat tightened. I'd forgotten how much I needed this. How much I'd missed having someone in my corner.

"Now." She squeezed my hand. "What's your plan? Because if you're really not going through with the ceremony, we need to think about what comes next."

"I don't know yet. I can't just refuse – Seraphine will know something's wrong. She'll hurt Dad, or worse." I rubbed my face. "I need proof. Evidence. Something concrete to show what she's done."

"Okay. Then that's where we start." Lena stood, pulling me up with her. "But first, you need to eat something and get your head straight. Come on. Let's grab breakfast and – "

She stopped. Tilted her head. "Are you okay? You went pale."

I had. Because through the open window, I'd just caught a scent on the morning breeze.

Pine and earth and something wild. Something that made my wolf throw herself against my ribcage with desperate, joyful recognition.

HIM. She was howling now, louder than ever. THAT'S HIM. OUR MATE.

"Kira?" Lena's voice seemed far away. "You're doing that thing again. Your eyes – "

I moved to the window, drawn like a magnet. The training grounds were visible from here, pack members already running morning drills.

And there, at the edge of the grounds, talking to one of my father's guards – 

Him.

He was tall, taller than Asher, with black hair that caught the morning light. Broad shoulders. The easy stance of someone who knew how to fight but didn't need to prove it. Even from this distance, I could see the scar cutting through his left eyebrow, the sharp line of his jaw.

He turned, as if sensing my gaze.

Green eyes. Piercing even across the distance. They locked onto mine, and the world tilted.

The bond snapped into place like a physical force. Not the false warmth I'd felt with Asher – this was lightning, was gravity, was every cell in my body screaming yes, him, finally.

And with it came something else. A shield. Gold and fierce, wrapping around my mind, my wolf, my very essence. His magic mixing with mine. Protecting me in ways I didn't yet understand.

My wolf howled in pure triumph.

Because he felt it too. I could see it in the way his whole body had gone rigid, in the way his hands slowly curled into fists at his sides. In the shock written across his face.

The real bond. The one the Moon Goddess had chosen.

And tomorrow, I was supposed to mate with someone else.