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Her eyes snap to mine. “She must’ve been the one. She’s the only other person who had access to you during that critical window. But I can’t remember her name. She vanished afterward. You’ll need to speak to your uncle. He might remember her.”

A chill moves down my spine, like ice taking root. My jaw locks. “My parents,” I grit out, “could their deaths have been her doing?”

Camara looks down. “It would make sense,” she whispers.

“Your father wasn’t a fool. Given enough time, he would’ve seen something was wrong.

Your mother, too. Especially when you met your mate — when the bond failed to activate.

That witch couldn’t risk it. She would’ve needed you alone. Vulnerable.”

My hands curl into fists.

Camara continues, voice softer now. “Your uncle suspected something, you know. When you didn’t shift at sixteen, he came to me.

After I couldn’t detect your Mate Spark, he still pushed for more answers.

But nothing felt wrong. No one could feel the magic.

Not even me. And your uncle… he had too much on his plate.

Acting as regent, fighting off challengers in your name every other day, holding his own pack together. ”

I stay silent, rage simmering just under my skin.

“In the end,” she finishes, “everyone just assumed you were… unlucky. The first shifter who couldn’t shift. Maybe a rare case. Maybe you didn’t have a Mate Spark because your other half didn’t exist.” She shakes her head. “We were all wrong.”

And now I’m the one paying the price for it. For being leashed like some cursed dog while the woman who belongs to me… had to suffer because of it. My mate. My soul’s twin.

“Wait,” Kass says, brow furrowed. “Isn’t your family famous for mowing through challengers like they’re nothing? Why was your uncle struggling?”

“That’s my father’s side,” I reply. “He was an only child. My uncle is my mother’s brother — he was also the Alpha Prime of the Bloodwulf Pack back then.

So not only did he have to run his own pack, he had to act as regent until Sierra — his daughter, Sin’s sister — was old enough to take over. It nearly broke him.”

I pause, the memory tugging something strange out of my chest.

I was eight when my parents died. Too young to shift.

Too young to fight. My uncle stepped up without hesitation and held the throne until I was ready.

And when I finally claimed it at nineteen — the youngest Alpha King in history — he threw a party for himself so loud I thought the palace would collapse from the celebration alone.

I’ve never seen the man drunker. Or happier.

He was a nightmare during my training. Brutal. Unrelenting. Pushed me harder every day, like he was racing against an invisible clock. I used to hate it.

Now I understand it saved me.

He still serves on the Council as Bloodwulf’s representative, but he only shows up for the big stuff now. High-level votes. War councils. The kind of things you can’t skip.

Camara suddenly leans forward, and I stiffen as I catch her sniffing the air.

“What are you doing?” I ask, leaning back slightly.

Her face tightens. “Nothing. That’s the problem. I can’t sense a damn thing. No magic. No trace. My wolf can’t pick up anything.”

She rises to her feet. “Let’s see if your Spark shows now. Shirt off.”

I hesitate for a second, then do as she says. I pull my shirt over my head and stand still.

She freezes.

Her eyes are locked on my chest. On the bruise.

“That mark,” she says slowly, pointing to it. “How long have you had it?”

“It showed up the day I first shifted,” I say. My voice comes out low, almost hoarse. “When Kass…” I swallow. “When she cloaked her side of the bond.”

“And it hasn’t healed since?” she presses. “Draven, your healing is faster than anyone I’ve seen. This should’ve disappeared in seconds.”

I nod once. “As you can see, it didn’t.”

“Could it be the leash?” Kass asks, stepping closer. Her tone is sharper now. Concern buried under irritation.

Camara frowns. “Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot in my life, but I’ve never seen this. Not even in shifters who’ve survived rejection.”

I run a hand down my face. This just keeps getting worse.

“Let’s see about that Spark now,” Camara murmurs, her voice soft with wonder as she lifts her hand and presses a single finger to the center of my forehead. “Close your eyes.”

I do.

She begins to chant the old words, her finger slowly trailing down my skin. My chest rises and falls with each breath. I remember the first time she did this, when I was a teenager. I’d felt… nothing. Just cold emptiness.

But this time?

This time, the moment her palm flattens against the center of my chest — burning.

A fire erupts beneath my skin, licking at bone, white-hot and sudden. My eyes fly open and I choke on a gasp, staggering back from her touch on instinct alone.

Both women move at once.

“What happened?” they ask in unison, voices laced with alarm.

“Your hand,” I manage to say, clutching my chest. “It burned. Like I was on fire.”

Kass’s head snaps toward Camara, fury blooming across her face. “What the hell did you do to him?”

But Camara just smiles, not startled at all. “Nothing beyond the usual ritual,” she says calmly. “But this... makes sense. If your bond is forged in hellfire, then someone calling it forward would burn. That’s a good sign — it means it’s finally responding. It’s waking up.”

She pauses, but her brows knit together in a frown. “And yet… I still can’t see your Spark. Not even a flicker. It’s like there’s a void where it should be.”

“But I feel it,” I say, quietly. “The bond. I feel it now.”

Camara nods slowly, like that makes perfect sense. “You should just mark each other,” she says, breezy and casual.

“Absolutely not,” I say immediately, my voice sharp.

Kass throws her hands in the air. “Well, I wasn’t planning on it anyway, but it’s nice to know you feel the same, Your Majesty,” she mutters, sarcasm thick.

“Kass,” I murmur, turning to her. “We don’t know what this magic is doing inside me. If I mark you and it spreads? If it infects you too?” My voice breaks on the edge of that thought. “I couldn’t live with that.”

Her expression falters. Just for a second. I see the disappointment slip through. It guts me.

I wish we wouldn’t have to deal with this. I wish we could just be normal mates, just navigating our way through the usual stuff, toward a life together.

Camara’s tone softens. “It’s a valid concern. But it’s also possible that your mark — especially from a hellhound — could be strong enough to break the leash entirely. Your kind was very unpredictable. And powerful.”

“I’m not risking my mate’s life on a possibility,” I snap. “Not now. Not ever.”

She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “That’s your call.” Then she straightens. “Now, get out.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“I need a private word with your mate,” she says, like she’s shooing off a servant. “Alone.”

“No,” I growl.

“Yes,” Kass says at the exact same time, stepping in front of me and shoving her palms against my chest. “Out.”

She leans in close, eyes locked on mine, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “And don’t you dare use your shifter hearing to listen in. That would make me very unhappy.”

Fuck, why do I love it so much when she threatens me?

I sigh and let her push me toward the door. “Fine,” I mutter. “But if she does anything suspicious…”

“I’ll throw her through a window,” Kass replies sweetly.

She shuts the door in my face.

And I stand there, grinning like a fool.