Sera's POV
Marcus Grey is coming to kill me.
The thought circles my brain like a vulture as I lie in my tiny room, staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow. He'll be here tomorrow, and Kade thinks he was involved in murdering the royal family.
My family. If Kade's right. If I'm really
No. I can't think about that now.
I turn over, wincing as my still-healing back protests. Kade stationed guards outside my door. For protection, he said. But I heard what he told Ash: Don't let her out of sight. If Marcus sent assassins ahead of his visit, they'll come tonight.
I close my eyes, trying to sleep. But every sound makes me jump. Every shadow seems to move.
Through the bond, I feel Kade. He's not sleeping either. His worry pulses through the connection like a heartbeat.
Then
CRASH.
Glass explodes somewhere in the fortress. Alarms shriek to life, so loud I clap my hands over my ears.
The door to my room slams open. One of the guards a young male warrior gestures frantically. Safe room! Now!
What's happening?
Rogue attack! He grabs my arm and pulls me into the hallway.
The fortress is chaos. Warriors running with weapons. Servants fleeing. Someone screaming. Through the windows, I see shapes moving in the darkness wolves, but wrong. Too thin. Too wild.
Rogues.
The guard pulls me toward the stairs leading to the basement safe room. Other servants stream past us, terrified.
Then I hear it. A sound that freezes my blood.
Howling. Close. Too close.
The window at the end of the hallway explodes inward.
Three rogues crash through in human form, glass raining around them. Their eyes are wrong yellow and wild, with no sanity left. Their clothes are torn, bloodstained, filthy.
The guard shoves me behind him. Run!
He shifts into his wolf form and charges the rogues. I stumble backward, watching in horror as they tear into him. He fights hard, but there are three of them.
One of the rogues breaks away from the fight. Locks eyes with me.
Found her. His voice is like gravel over broken glass. The omega.
My blood turns to ice. They're not here randomly. They're here for me.
I run.
Behind me, I hear the guard scream. Then silence.
Footsteps pound after me. All three rogues now. Chasing.
I turn a corner, desperately looking for anywhere to hide. But I'm in a long hallway with nowhere to go.
A hand grabs my hair and yanks me backward. I scream as I hit the floor.
The rogue looms over me, grinning with too many teeth. Orders were to make it look like an accident. But nobody said we couldn't have fun first.
Orders. Someone sent them.
Marcus.
The rogue reaches for me with clawed hands.
Something inside me snaps.
NO.
Power erupts from my chest like an explosion.
The rogue flies backward so fast he's a blur. He hits the wall with a sickening crack and doesn't move.
The other two rogues stare. At me. At their unconscious companion. At the silver light pouring from my hands.
What are you? one whispers.
I don't know! But I'm done being afraid.
They charge together.
I throw my hands up. The power responds instantly this time, like it's been waiting. Silver light blazes through the hallway, and both rogues hit invisible walls. They drop like stones.
I stand there, gasping, surrounded by three unconscious bodies and shattered glass.
My hands are glowing so bright they light up the entire hallway. The royal markings spiral up my arms, pulsing with power.
Footsteps. Someone's coming.
I try to make the glow stop, but it won't. The power is surging through me like a river, too strong to control.
Mira rounds the corner, sword drawn. She freezes when she sees me.
Her eyes go wide. Holy
More footsteps. Heavier ones.
Kade appears beside Mira, and his expression
He's not looking at the rogues. He's looking at me. At the light. At the markings that are now covering both my arms and starting to creep up my neck.
Through the bond, I feel his shock. His awe. His fear.
Not fear of me. Fear for me.
Are you hurt? His voice is rough.
I shake my head. But I can't make it stop. The power
He crosses to me in three strides. Doesn't hesitate. Doesn't flinch from the light. He grabs my shoulders, and the moment he touches me, something shifts.
The power recognizes him. The mate bond flares bright, and suddenly the wild energy has an anchor. It flows from me into him, through the bond, completing a circuit.
The glow fades slowly. The markings sink back into my skin.
I sag against him, exhausted. He catches me easily.
Mira clears her throat. So Anyone want to explain what I just saw?
Kade looks at the unconscious rogues. Then at me. They came for you specifically.
I know. I heard them. They had orders to make it look like an accident.
His jaw clenches. Marcus.
What am I missing? Mira demands. Why would Councilman Grey send rogues after an omega?
Kade and I exchange looks. Through the bond, I feel his question: Do we tell her?
We need allies, I think back. And she just saw everything anyway.
Because she's not just an omega, Kade says. Show her, Sera.
I hold out my hands. Focus. The markings appear again faint but visible. Ancient symbols glowing silver against my skin.
Mira steps closer, eyes narrowed. I've seen those symbols before. In the old history texts about She stops. Her face goes pale. No. That's impossible.
The Moonblood Dynasty, Kade confirms. We think Sera is the lost heir.
Mira looks between us like we've lost our minds. The heir died twenty years ago. Everyone knows that.
Her body was never found, I say quietly. And I was found as a child with no memories. Right around the same time.
Mira sits down hard on the floor. This is insane.
It explains everything, Kade says. The frame-up. The forced mating. Marcus trying to kill her. If he was involved in the massacre and she survived
He'd want her dead before she remembered who she was, Mira finishes. She looks at me with new eyes. Holy shit. You're royalty.
Maybe, I say. We don't know for sure.
Ash runs up, breathing hard. Kade, we've got a problem. One of the rogues we captured is talking. He says they were hired by someone on the Council. And He stops when he sees the unconscious bodies. What happened here?
Later, Kade says. What else did the rogue say?
Ash's face is grim. He said this was supposed to be a distraction. The real attack comes at dawn.
My stomach drops. Dawn. When Marcus arrives.
It's a coordinated assault, Kade says slowly. He sends rogues to weaken our defenses tonight. Then arrives in the morning when we're exhausted and distracted.
To finish what the rogues started, I whisper. To kill me.
Over my dead body. Kade's voice is pure steel. Ash, double the guards. Mira, I want warriors on every entrance. No one gets in or out without my permission.
And Sera? Mira asks.
Stays with me. Where I can protect her. He looks at me. No arguments.
I nod. I don't want to be alone anyway.
Ash and Mira leave to organize defences. Kade turns to me.
Come on. You're staying in my quarters tonight.
As we walk through the damaged fortress, I see pack members staring. At me. At the silver glow that still clings faintly to my skin.
They know something's different about me now.
The secret is out.
And Marcus Grey is coming at dawn to make sure it dies with me.