Page 17 of Shifting Hearts

THREE

Kieran

R aven.

The name settles in my chest like a stone dropped into deep water, no ripple. Just weight.

It doesn’t match the girl in front of me. Not entirely. She’s too raw, too fractured. Even so, something about her feels familiar, not from memory but from a myth.

I release her slowly, letting her find her balance. She’s still trembling, but I don’t think it’s from weakness. Something is waking inside her, something that doesn’t know how to be quiet.

“You said she spoke to you,” I murmur. “The woman in your vision.”

Raven nods, arms wrapped tightly around herself. “She had my eyes but older, sharper. Like she’d seen too much.”

I watch her carefully. “Did she say anything else?”

“Only what I told you.”

I exhale slowly. That phrase scratches at something buried not in me but in the Brotherhood’s lore, in the stories passed down in firelight and blood.

Echoes. Lost blood. Moon-born power.

I’ve heard whispers, half-truths, and warnings, but none of them ever came with a name.

Until now.

“You’re not just a stray,” I say quietly. “You’re something they tried to erase.”

Her eyes snap to mine, wide and storm-bright. “Who’s they?”

I shake my head. “Not sure yet, but if you’re what I think you are…”

I don’t finish the sentence because if I’m right, she’s not just dangerous.

She's a prophecy.

And every pack, every dragon clan, every blood-bound alpha will want her gone before she figures out what she is.

Lira was my first mate. Chosen by the elders and bound through ritual. She steadied me when my fire threatened to consume everything. She was kind, brave, loyal, but she wasn’t fated.

She didn’t wake the storm in my blood, didn’t make the flame inside me sing, not like Raven does.

From the moment I touched her, something ancient stirred. It wasn’t just heat or hunger. It was recognition.

My dragon, buried beneath years of exile and restraint, rose like it had been waiting. Not for a fight. Not for vengeance.

For her .

Fated mates are rare among dragons. They’re dangerous. The bond doesn’t just link hearts, it fuses power. It amplifies magic. It can either elevate us to legend… or burn the world down. That’s why the Brotherhood forbids it.

It’s why they hunt those who dare to claim it, because when a dragon finds their true mate, they stop being controllable.

They become myths.

And Raven, this girl with moonlight in her veins and prophecy in her breath, is already rewriting my fire.

I feel it in the way my scales itch beneath my skin, in the way my breath heats when she’s near. In the way my instincts scream protect even when I barely know her.

She’s not just mine.

She’s the beginning of something the world isn’t ready for, and I don’t know if we’ll be strong enough to survive it.

The door clicks shut behind me, muffling the low hum of the guard’s voice outside Raven’s room. I trust him. He won’t let anyone near her, not without bleeding for it.

Still, my fire coils tight in my chest, uneasy.

Silver fire flickers along the spine of the ancient tome, recognizing me as Alpha. Not just of the Forsaken Brotherhood, but of the last true dragon pack still standing.

This book was meant for leaders, for those strong enough to carry its truths without flinching.

I’m not sure I qualify anymore.

The pages crackle as I turn them, the scent of ash and memory rising like smoke. Symbols etched in draconic script shimmer faintly, reacting to the heat in my blood.

I scan the passages, searching for anything that matches Raven’s vision. Her name, her power, her presence.

And then I find it.

A fragment. Half-burned. Preserved only because the fire that tried to destroy it recognized its own.

The Echo will not be born, she will awaken. She will not be claimed, she will choose. And the flame that answers her will not be tamed.

My breath catches.

This isn’t just a prophecy.

It's a warning.

The Echo isn’t a passive force. She’s a catalyst. A sovereign. A mate who doesn’t bind herself through ritual, but through recognition.

And the flame that answers her?

Mine.

I slam the book shut, the fire in my chest flaring hot.

Not out of anger, out of fear .

Because if Raven is the Echo… then I’m the flame.

And that bond doesn’t just rewrite the rules.

It breaks them.