Updated Dec 21, 2025 • ~9 min read
The dream started like all the others—fragmented images that made no sense.
A battlefield strewn with bodies. Silver moonlight cutting through smoke. And a man with dark hair and crimson eyes, reaching for me as I fell.
But this time, the dream didn’t fade.
I stood in a forest I didn’t recognize, ancient trees towering overhead. The air tasted of magic and copper. And there—standing twenty feet away—was me.
Except it wasn’t me. Not exactly.
She wore armor I’d never seen, carried a sword I’d never touched, and her eyes glowed pure silver. Power radiated from her in waves that made the air shimmer.
“You’re stronger than you know,” she said, her voice my voice but layered with something deeper. Ancient. “But you must remember.”
“Remember what?”
She stepped closer, and I saw the scars on her arms, the mark on her neck—two interlocking circles, one silver and one crimson. A completed mate bond.
“Who you were. What you sacrificed. Why the bond waited three hundred years.”
“I don’t understand—”
“You will.” She reached out and pressed her palm to my chest. Heat exploded through me, and suddenly I wasn’t standing in the forest anymore.
I was running through snow, pursued by something that made the trees scream. Twenty years old, maybe twenty-one, wearing furs and leather. My breath came in ragged gasps and my legs burned but I couldn’t stop, couldn’t let them catch me—
The vision shifted.
Now I stood in a warrior’s stance, blade dripping crimson, surrounded by enemies. Not human. Not quite vampire. Something in between—creatures with too many teeth and eyes that swallowed light. I was outnumbered, outmatched, but I fought anyway because behind me stood a village of people who couldn’t defend themselves.
“For the pack,” I whispered in a language I didn’t speak but somehow understood. “For the Moon Mother. For—”
Shift again.
A man knelt before me in the moonlight, his crimson eyes filled with devotion. Kaian, but younger somehow, more human. His hands trembled as he reached for mine.
“I’ll find you,” he said. “No matter how long it takes. No matter how many lives you live. I swear it on my blood, on my eternal soul—I’ll find you.”
“You can’t promise that.” My voice cracked with grief I didn’t understand. “The curse will take me. And you—you’ll forget. They all forget.”
“Never.” He pulled me close, pressing his forehead to mine. “Bind yourself to me now. Before the curse claims you. Let our souls tie together so tightly that not even death can sever us.”
“If I do that, you’ll search forever. You’ll never be free.”
“Then I’ll search forever.” His lips brushed mine, soft and desperate. “Better an eternity looking for you than a moment without hope.”
I wanted to protest, wanted to save him from this fate. But the moon was rising and I could feel the curse pulling at me, could feel my body starting to break apart into light and shadow. So instead, I kissed him back and whispered the words that would bind us.
“Through blood and bone, through death and time, through every life and every world—I am yours and you are mine.”
Power exploded between us, searing hot and ice cold. The mate bond snapped into place with enough force to shake the earth. And as the curse took me, as my body dissolved into starlight, I saw Kaian collapse, screaming my name—
I jolted awake with a gasp that tore from my throat.
My room in Kaian’s fortress materialized around me—stone walls, silk sheets, moonlight streaming through the window. Real. Solid. Present.
But my hands still tingled with phantom heat, and I could still taste that final kiss on my lips.
“Just a dream,” I whispered. “Just—”
No. Not a dream. A memory.
The truth hit me like a physical blow. That woman in the armor had been me. Three hundred years ago, maybe longer. I’d been some kind of warrior, some kind of protector. And Kaian—
Kaian had loved me.
I scrambled out of bed, legs shaking, and pressed my back against the cold stone wall. This couldn’t be real. Reincarnation was a myth, a story the elders told but no one actually believed. People didn’t live multiple lives. They didn’t carry memories forward through centuries.
Except I had just remembered. And the bond in my chest—that faint pull I’d been feeling toward Kaian—suddenly made horrifying sense.
It wasn’t new. It was ancient. And it had been waiting for me to remember.
A knock at the door made me jump.
“Lira?” Kaian’s voice, concerned. “I felt—are you hurt?”
He felt it. Of course he did. The bond might still be dormant, but it was aware enough to transmit panic.
I should have told him to go away. Should have processed this alone, figured out what it meant before facing him. But instead, I heard myself say, “Come in.”
The door opened and Kaian stepped through, still dressed despite the late hour. His eyes found me immediately, scanning for injuries.
“You’re shaking,” he said, crossing the room in three strides. “What happened?”
“I remembered.” The words felt too small for the enormity of what I’d seen. “I had a vision—or a memory, I don’t know—of before. Of us. Three hundred years ago.”
Kaian went very still. “What did you see?”
“A battle. A curse. And you—” My voice broke. “You promised to find me. I tried to stop you but you wouldn’t listen, and then I died or disappeared or—I don’t know what happened but I left and you stayed and—”
He closed the remaining distance between us and pulled me against his chest. I went rigid for half a second, then collapsed into him, shaking so hard my teeth rattled.
“You remember,” he whispered into my hair, his voice raw with emotion I’d never heard from him. “After all this time, you finally remember.”
“I don’t understand. How is this possible? People don’t reincarnate. The Moon Mother doesn’t—”
“She does for Her chosen ones.” Kaian pulled back just enough to cup my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Moon Wolves are rare, Lira. But warriors blessed by the Mother herself? They’re nearly unheard of. When they die, She keeps their souls safe until the world needs them again.”
“I’m not a warrior.” I could barely manage my own training sessions. “I’m weak and small and—”
“You were the fiercest fighter I’d ever seen.” His thumb brushed away a tear I hadn’t realized had fallen. “You held off an army of shadow creatures single-handedly while villagers evacuated. You stood between darkness and innocence and refused to yield even when you knew it would cost you everything.”
“What curse?” I needed to understand. “In the vision, I felt something pulling at me. Something that broke me apart.”
Kaian’s expression turned grim. “The Shadow King’s final revenge. When you killed his general, he cursed you with his dying breath. Said you’d never know peace, never have the life you’d earned. That you’d be scattered across time, living and dying and living again, never remembering who you were or what you’d sacrificed.”
“But I’m remembering now.”
“Because the bond is reforming.” He pressed his palm over my heart, and I felt an answering warmth in my chest. “Our souls recognized each other the moment I found you at the border. The curse is breaking, Lira. You’re coming back.”
I wanted to believe him. Wanted to think I was someone strong and brave instead of the weak wolf who’d been poisoned and betrayed. But the gap between that warrior in the vision and the person I saw in the mirror felt impossible to bridge.
“What if I can’t be her again?” I whispered. “What if this version of me is all that’s left?”
Kaian’s smile was fierce and certain. “Then I’ll love this version too. I’ll love every version of you, in every life, until the stars burn out.” He leaned down until his forehead touched mine, his breath cold against my lips. “You don’t have to be who you were. You just have to be who you are.”
“And who am I?”
“The woman strong enough to survive your sister’s betrayal. Strong enough to cross into vampire territory alone. Strong enough to face the truth even when it destroys you.” His hands tightened on my face. “Strong enough to make me wait three hundred years and somehow be worth every second.”
The kiss happened without conscious decision. One moment we were staring at each other, and the next my lips were on his and his arms wrapped around me and everything else fell away.
He tasted like winter and dark magic and something uniquely him. The bond in my chest flared to life, burning bright enough to hurt. I gasped against his mouth and he swallowed the sound, one hand tangling in my hair while the other pressed against my lower back, holding me close.
This wasn’t like the hesitant kisses I’d shared with Drake. This was claiming and being claimed, recognition deeper than memory, need that transcended lifetimes.
When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard. His eyes blazed crimson, and I realized mine were probably glowing silver.
“I felt her,” I whispered. “My wolf. Just for a second, when you kissed me—she was there.”
“She’s waking up.” Kaian’s voice was rough with desire barely controlled. “The more the bond strengthens, the more your power will return. But Lira—” His grip gentled. “It won’t be easy. Your sister has been suppressing your wolf for years. Breaking free will hurt.”
“I don’t care.” And I didn’t. Not anymore. “I want my power back. I want to be whole again.”
“Then we’ll make you whole.” He pressed one more kiss to my forehead, soft and reverent. “Whatever it takes.”
As I stood there in his arms, the bond humming between us and my wolf stirring for the first time in years, I finally understood what the vision had been trying to tell me.
I’d been strong once. Strong enough to fight armies and accept curses and bind myself to a vampire for all eternity.
Maybe I could be strong again.
Maybe I already was.
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