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She’s been with me all along.

Irene is Lila.

I suspected it when she told me about her disease, but that doesn’t mean I’m not surprised.

“Finding Irene’s childhood photo helped us narrow down her possible whereabouts,” Elder Tenno says, pausing before he continues speaking. “We ran facial recognition and AI modeling on her last known photo, and the adult prediction gave us a match.”

He points at the AI-generated image now. “Lila Winter is Irene. Her records show that she lived in this city as a child, same as Irene, before she relocated to New York a few years later. She also has no memories of her past, which is why we found it hard to get to her. She does not remember she is Irene.”

Lila is Irene.

Goddess.

How could I have missed it all those years when we first met?

How could I have…

My Fated Mate is Lila, and Lila is Irene. Turns out the girl I was unknowingly drawn to—the one I was searching for—has been with me from the very beginning.

When the shock wears off, I trace Lila’s cheek on the photo with my thumb, happiness and disbelief slamming into me like a freight train.

“Alaric? Are you with me, boy?” Elder Tenno questions.

I raise my head to look at him, a smile on my face as I shake my head at how mysteriously fate works.

“Thank you.”

Once the two words are out of my mouth, I turn around, switching my phone on as I push my hair back.

Soon as I step outside the building, thunder clouds roar from above, the winds howl with the same intensity my chest is roaring at.

The woman I’ve been looking for has been with me all this time.

My wild one. My woman. My fucking mate.

The minute my phone switches on, there are a lot of missed calls from Ethan but the only sound I want to hear is from Lila. I want to tell her everything. I want to tell her that fate brought us together. That…

My phone buzzes against my hand with Ethan’s name flashing on the screen.

I pick up his call with no fucking clue that whatever he’s about to say will decimate it.

“They are gone, boss,” Ethan says. Just that. Two words that cleave me open and leave me stunned by the pavement.

“What?” I grip my phone so hard I can almost hear it crack.

“Lila. Lina. I went to check the cameras. She turned them off. Slipped past me, took a cab. Her phone’s off. I’ve been trying to reach you for hours, boss.”

Ice floods my veins.

“Where? Where did they… go?” My voice is low, I barely recognize myself.

There’s a pause, one that ups my fury.

I don’t want to say it but the truth is in the pudding. Julian stole the records. Julian knows Irene is Lila. Julian is the same ex-boyfriend who’s been pining after Lila since he saw her with me.

“She’s with Julian, isn’t she?” I don’t need confirmation, but Ethan gives it anyway.

“I think so. I checked the footage. Before she switched off the cameras, she was speaking with someone on the phone then she went to wake Lina up and they left. Traffic cams show them inside a cab before it drops them off in one of the restaurants that Julian owns.”