LOGINSAGEOnce, I had wondered what it felt like to have a mate.Not in the abstract way people talked about it—bonded, chosen, destined—but in the visceral sense. To know a mate. To smell them and have something deep and raw inside you recognize the truth before your mind ever could. To understand the pull that made people reckless, foolish, brave.I had felt a sliver of it once. As Maya.That first time with Adam, years ago, in the caves, there had been something there—something tentative and fragile, like the first note of a song that never quite found its chorus. But time had eroded it. Betrayal had ruptured it. Distance had finished the work. Eventually, even the longing had died.Or so I had thought.Now—I shut my eyes as his voice carried through the door, threading its way into the room as though walls were merely a suggestion.“Sage?”The sound of it made something inside me twist.Lifemates.The word rose unbidden, heavy and dangerous. I held back an incredulous scoff.Lifemat
I stood miles away from the boundary.The invisible line separating the lycan region and its colonies from the rest of the world shimmered faintly to my senses, not with sight but with power—wards layered upon wards, old magic braided with newer ones, humming like a living thing. I could feel it pressing against my skin, familiar and unwelcome all at once. Wards made to keep mostly humans away, except they came around with a guard, someone with a keen eye to the supernatural.This was where I was supposed to be. Not some mountain. In the stage of my plan, this was where I was supposed to be.And yet, for the first time since I fled the mountains, doubt crept in, even without El’s troublesome voice in my head. I paused on a ridge overlooking the land, the wind tugging at my clothes, carrying scents I recognized too well—wolves, earth, smoke, blood old and new. Home, if such a word could still apply to me. Or a cage, depending on how one looked at it.To my left lay the direction of
SAGEI didn’t think I would ever get used to it.I stood before the mirror, unmoving, my reflection staring back at me with a calm confidence I possessed. The room was quiet, dawn creeping in slowly from the edges of the world, and still I couldn’t look away.The wardrobe had offered me only dresses—flowing and elegant, meant for bodies like this one. I wore one now, pale and soft, the fabric clinging in places it never used to, skimming curves I hadn’t fully accepted as mine. My wig rested in my hands, familiar, grounding.My real hair fell down my back in a long, silken cascade—white as snow, but no longer purely so. Gold threaded through it now, fine streaks catching the light whenever I moved, as though sunlight itself had decided to live there. The same gold ringed my eyes, encircling the irises in a thin, unmistakable halo that marked me for what I was.Ancient. Half Ancient, or thereabout.The mark on my forehead had deepened too. It was no longer something faint, no longer ea
So they knew.The thought followed me like a shadow as I walked out of the cave beside the priestess, her voice flowing steadily as she spoke about training, discipline, control—about how I would learn to harness the power now coiled inside my blood.I barely heard her.The Abstenum is in the pack… how do we approach?The words replayed in my mind over and over, growing heavier each time. If the ancients knew of the Abstenum, then it meant one thing—they were coming for it. Not just as observers. Not just as allies.They would fight for it. Against the werewolves. Against the vampires. Or worse… they might negotiate with the werewolves…My fingers curled slowly at my sides. I didn’t care which path they chose, not really. All I cared about was time. I needed my revenge before they arrived in force, before politics and treaties and ancient laws swallowed everything whole.Which meant I couldn’t stay here. I have to leave tonight. The realization settled coldly in my chest. Whatever p
SAGE Prince Valenf was the one who spoke first.“How are you feeling now, Sage?”His voice was calm, measured, carrying the quiet authority of someone who did not need to raise it to be obeyed. I bowed low before him, instinctively, deeply—lower than I had bowed to anyone in years. Power wrapped around him like a second skin, dense and ancient and unmistakable. It pressed against my senses, not aggressively, but with a presence that dared anything around it to forget who he was.Prince of his people.I found myself wondering how old he truly was. He looked no older than Darius—no older than a virile male in his late twenties, broad-shouldered, sharp-eyed, his hair dark and neatly bound at the nape of his neck. But the weight in his gaze told another story. Time clung to him differently. Like stone shaped by centuries of water.“I’m better,” I said, lifting my head. My voice did not shake. I was proud of that.He studied me for a moment longer, then inclined his head slightly. “Sit
“I hope this won’t make us lifemates,” I said lightly, the words forced into something that sounded like a joke. “Because if so, I might be the first female to kill off her lifemate…”I leaned closer to Darius’s wrist and licked the pinprick where my fangs had pierced him. The taste of his blood still lingered on my tongue—rich, utterly enticing and delicious, addicting, humming faintly with ancient power. Under my gaze, the tiny wounds sealed themselves, skin knitting together seamlessly.I watched it happen with quiet fascination. So, this is what I had become? My spittle now had healing properties. A wonderful phenomenon only seen in these gods-blessed supernaturals , according to the half-forgotten texts I’d once skimmed through in the forbidden royal library, and dismissed as myth. Seeing it happen—feeling it—was something else entirely. Another enigma stacked neatly atop the mountain of things I didn’t yet understand about myself. Powers I was yet to understand, to tap into…







