ADRIAN'S POV
The explosion of power throws me backward twenty feet. Trees disappear. The ground cracks open. And through it all, I feel Ella—blazing like an explosion through the mate bond that just roared back to life.
But it's wrong. Changed. The link was supposed to be gold, warm, gentle. This is purple fire and silver lightning, burning through my blood like acid and honey mixed together.
"ADRIAN!" David drags me behind a rock as Lyra's attack scorches the ground where I just stood. "What the hell is happening to you?"
"The bond—" I gasp, holding my chest. "It's different. She's Forgotten now, but we're still linked. It shouldn't be possible."
"Well, it's happening. And she's about to get herself killed protecting you!"
I look up. Ella stands between me and twelve angry Forgotten Ones, magic crackling around her like a storm. But she's moving. The waking and bond restoration happened too fast. She's burning through power she doesn't know how to handle.
"Stand down!" Ella yells at Lyra. "I don't want to fight you!"
"You chose a wolf over your own blood!" Lyra's magic grows, purple lightning arcing between her hands. "You betrayed everything your grandmother died for!"
"My grandmother died trying to build peace!" Ella's voice rings with power and pain. "I'm finishing what she started!"
"By mating with the enemy?"
"By refusing to become you!" Ella's eyes blaze. "You're so busy hating shifters, you forgot how to be anything else. Grandma wouldn't want this. She'd want—"
Lyra attacks. Not with a warning. Not with kindness. Pure lethal force directed straight at Ella's heart.
My wolf takes over. I shift mid-leap, landing between them as a huge silver wolf. Lyra's lightning hits my shoulder instead of Ella's chest. Pain explodes through me—magic burns different than regular wounds, searing all the way to my soul.
I fall, smoking and twitching.
"ADRIAN!" Ella drops beside me, her hands glowing as she tries to fix the damage. But Forgotten magic and shifter health don't mix. Every touch sends fresh pain through my body.
"Stop," I gasp. "You're making it worse."
"I don't know how to fix this!" Tears run down her face. "I just got this power. I don't know what I'm doing!"
"Then let me help." A new voice cuts through the noise.
Everyone freezes.
My uncle—Markus Wolfe—steps out of the darkness at the edge of the destroyed forest. He's flanked by thirty shifters from different packs. Bears, wolves, foxes, all armed and ready.
"Uncle?" My voice comes out weak. "What are you doing here?"
"Cleaning up your mess." His cold eyes sweep from me to Ella to the Forgotten Ones. "The Council got reports of unauthorized magic use. They sent me to investigate." His smile is wicked. "Imagine my surprise when I found my nephew has mated with a Forgotten One. The very thing our family swore to avoid."
"Markus." Lyra's voice holds recognition and hate. "Still the Council's lapdog after all these years?"
"Still alive, unlike the rest of your pathetic species." He gestures, and his shifters spread out, surrounding us. "Here's what's going to happen. The Forgotten Ones will surrender quietly, or we eliminate them. All of them."
"You can't—" Ella starts.
"I can and I will." Markus pulls out a tool I recognize with horror—a Banishment Stone. Ancient magic meant to sever supernatural beings from their power forever. "This was meant for death. But I think I'll use it on you instead, niece-in-law. Strip your magic, break the mate tie, return you to being a harmless human. Then we can decide if you live or die at our leisure."
"No!" I struggle to stand, but my legs won't work. The lightning wound is spreading, poisoning my system.
"Stay down, nephew. This doesn't concern you anymore." Markus moves on Ella. "You should have let her die when the Council ordered it. Would have saved everyone a lot of grief."
Ella backs away, magic flaring defensively. "I won't let you—"
"You're untrained. Newly awakened. You can barely stand." Markus is right—Ella's trembling from tiredness. "Surrender, or watch me kill your mate slowly while you're powerless to stop it."
Behind him, Lyra and the other Forgotten Ones prepare to charge. David and my pack ready themselves. Markus's thirty shifters raise their guns.
We're about to start a war that will kill everyone I love.
"STOP!" Ella's voice cracks like thunder. Power bursts from her—not purple Forgotten magic, but gold shifter energy mixed with silver lightning. The mate bond, increased by her awakened power.
Everyone freezes. Even Markus looks shocked.
"What—" he starts.
"The bond changed me," Ella says, her voice rich with two types of magic. "I'm not just Forgotten anymore. And Adrian's not just shifter. The mate bond united us. Made us something new."
I feel it too. Her magic running through me, healing the lightning wound. My shifter strength flowing into her, grounding her power. We're linked on a level that shouldn't exist.
"That's impossible," Lyra whispers.
"That's evolution," Ella corrects. She helps me stand, and together we face both sides. "Your war is over. Three hundred years of hiding and chasing and killing. It ends tonight."
"How?" Markus wants. "The Council will never accept—"
"Then we'll make them." I'm standing now, fully healed, power I've never felt before coursing through my blood. The mate bond isn't just linking us—it's making us stronger. " Ella's right. We're something new. Something that shows Forgotten and shifters can coexist."
"Or something that proves you're both abominations," Markus says coldly. He raises the Banishment Stone. "Last chance. Submit to Council power, or I use this."
The stone starts to glow. I feel its pull, trying to sever the tie, trying to rip Ella's magic away.
Ella grabs my hand. Our united power flares.
"Use it," she says quietly. "See what happens when you try to break something that was meant to exist."
Markus triggers the stone fully. White light explodes outward, meant to unmake supernatural bonds.
It hits us.
And shatters.
The Banishment Stone—an artifact that's worked for three hundred years—breaks into dust against our united power.
Markus stares in disbelief. "That's... that's impossible."
"Stop saying that word." Ella's magic pulses in time with my heartbeat. "We're rewriting the rules now."
"Then the Council will kill you both." Markus pulls out his phone. "I'm calling Marcus. He'll bring an army—"
His phone bursts in his hand.
Everyone looks up.
The sky tears open like someone ripped a hole in reality. Through the gap, I see a place that shouldn't exist—a city of silver towers floating in purple clouds. Ancient. Powerful. Beautiful. "The Forgotten homeland," Lyra breathes. "The hidden world. It's... opening?"
A figure steps through the tear in reality. Female, impossibly ancient, radiating power that makes my wolf whimper and my uncle's shifters drop to their knees in automatic submission.
She has silver hair down to her feet and violet eyes that burn like stars. Her voice echoes from everywhere and nowhere: "The promise is fulfilled. The bridge is built. The old world ends and the new world starts." She looks directly at Ella and me. "And you two just became the most important beings in existence."
Behind her, through the tear in reality, I see thousands of figures. Forgotten Ones who aren't dead. Who've been hiding in their land for three hundred years.
Waiting for this time.
"Oh no," Ella whispers, squeezing my hand. "What did we just do?"