Chapter 3: Three Years Later
Three years changed Liora Vale.
The girl who had left Blackthorn with tears in her eyes no longer existed.
The woman who returned had learned how to hide them.
She rode through the Northern Territory gates just before sunset.
Her black horse stopped.
Ahead stood the massive stone walls of Blackthorn.
Home.
Or what had once been home.
Liora looked at the gates.
“I promised myself I’d never come back.”
Her wolf stirred.
You lied.
Liora sighed.
“I know.”
She had spent three years traveling from pack to pack.
Learning.
Training.
Discovering things about herself that Blackthorn had deliberately hidden.
She had learned that she wasn’t weak.
She had learned that her mother had belonged to a bloodline almost erased from history.
And she had learned something else.
Kael Draven had never truly rejected their bond.
He had suppressed it.
Why?
She didn’t know.
Yet.
The gates opened.
Two guards approached.
“Name?”
“Liora Vale.”
The guards froze.
One looked at the other.
“You’re not permitted inside.”
Liora raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
“Orders.”
“From whom?”
The answer came from behind them.
“From me.”
Liora turned.
A familiar voice.
A familiar presence.
Her heart betrayed her.
Kael stood at the top of the stone steps.
Three years had changed him too.
He looked harder.
Colder.
But his eyes—
His eyes were exactly the same.
Their gazes met.
The bond exploded between them.
Liora’s breath caught.
Kael’s face went pale.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Liora smiled.
Not warmly.
Not lovingly.
Politely.
“Alpha.”
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“Why are you here?”
“I received an invitation.”
His eyes narrowed.
“From whom?”
Liora pulled a folded letter from her coat.
“The Council.”
Kael stared at it.
Then his expression changed.
Fear.
Just for a moment.
But Liora saw it.
She had become very good at noticing things people wanted to hide.
“What does the Council want?” he asked.
Liora smiled.
“I thought you knew everything.”
Then she walked past him.
Kael remained completely still.
His wolf growled inside him.
Mate.
For three years, he had tried to silence that voice.
Tonight, it was louder than ever.
