And there was a lion.
A massive male lion was resting near the door of the dwelling.
The magick of the soul call shined from him like pure moonlight. He was glowing. For her. But if this male was glowing, then it meant her husband, her mate, the love of her life was dead.
Invisible fingers wrapped themselves around her heart and squeezed until she couldn’t breathe. The pain was excruciating, like someone was pulling her apart from the inside. Her lungs seized up. Tears burned her eyes, blurring her vision. A desperate cry clawed its way up her throat, but she swallowed it back down, refusing to show weakness.
She was a queen.
She had to be strong. Stronger than anything else—even her own breaking heart.
“Who are you?” Her voice shook with the panic and pain and denial she was struggling to contain. “Where am I?”
The lion tilted his head and stared for a moment. Then the air around him shimmered and a man appeared in his beast’s place.
The male leaned backward against the door, instead of approaching. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and stared at her, confusion flickering over his face for a moment like he’d expected a different question from her.
His long blond hair was braided and hung halfway down his back. Bright blue eyes met her gaze. Kind eyes. But pain-filled eyes that mirrored the knife-in-the-gut-like agony she was experiencing right now.
“Answer me, I am your queen.” She sat up straighter. She might not be his actual queen, depended on what territory they were in. But he would still recognize her authority. And she could act like she wasn’t in pain. She had to act like it. If she let herself dwell on the fact that her soulmate was gone. That she’d lost Tallix…she would crumble.
“Of La’Tar?” The male spoke, his voice thready and skeptical. “You were Tallix Ka’lagh’s mate?”
“If you return me unharmed, he may spare your life.”
“I cannot return you,” the male answered.
“The soul call you see is a lie. A mistake. I will never be yours. I need to get back to La’Tar. I order you to help me.”
His face darkened, the pain in his features becoming more defined.
“What do you remember of yesterday?”
Panic flooded her mind. She started to speak and tell him that she remembered nothing past being in her bed with her mate yesterday.
But that could not be right.
How could she not remember how she got to this place with this male.
“You stole me. You used magick. I don’t…how did I get here?”
The only thing that felt familiar was him, which also didn’t make sense. She didn’t know him. Had never met him, but her beast felt it too. They could trust him. He wasn’t here to hurt her.
He shook his head and moved from the door. But he didn’t approach her. Instead he walked to the opposite side of the structure, opened a wooden box attached to the wall and pulled out a brightly colored bag.
She glanced back at the unguarded door.
“You are injured. Rivian’s warriors would snatch you back up if you leave without me. And where would you go? We are not on Reylea anymore.”
“Rivian? You’re working with that traitor?” Her voice was an angry growl. Rivian Ka’lagh was her mate’s brother and a traitorous bastard. He was cruel and hated Tallix. His pride was ruthless and killed without reason, stealing and raping and murdering. He and Tallix had been at war for years.
“Rivian took everything from me many years ago. I would no sooner work for him than stab myself in the eye.” The male spoke through calmly veiled rage. His eyes were pure gold and staring at her like he wanted to tear her limb from limb just for speaking the words. “He had you. I freed you from him yesterday. Brought you here to tend your wounds. And you remember nothing. I need to get you to Naomi even more than I realized. She will know what to do. And Connie. Perhaps she can help with the injury to your mind.”
“My mind? Yesterday?” Her voice sputtered like a brook splashing over rocks. “I don’t understand. What is going on? Where are we? What is this place?” She choked on a cry lodged in her throat. “Why do you glow for me? Who are you? It can’t be—”
Lorelei stared at the beams on the ceiling and listened to the howling wind outside. He was weaving her a story. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.
“You remember who you are?” He picked up the bag and walked toward her. He put his hand inside the bag and pulled out a small brown disc. “It is like gorcha,” he said, holding out his hand. “Eat.”
Gorcha was a sweet bread fed to small children when they were upset and wouldn’t eat anything.
She took the disc from him and bit into it. “I am Lorelei Ka’lagh, queen of La’Tar, mated to Tallix.” The food crumbled in her mouth, sweet with a hint of a flavor she didn’t recognize.
He nodded, repeating her name under his breath. Like he was putting pieces of a puzzle together. Except he had more pieces than she did.
“What is going on? I feel like I have met you, but I don’t know your name. I don’t remember seeing you before right now. Where are we? What happened? Why do you glow? I know what that means, but it can’t be true.”
“I am Saul Di’Mara. I lived outside of La’Tar, but—“ He didn’t finish whatever he was going to tell her. He stopped himself and the pain that flashed in his beautiful blue eyes struck right at her soul. “I found you yesterday. Rivian’s warriors had you tied up. You were injured.”
“What?” It didn’t add up. “Yesterday I was home. I was with Tallix. I don’t understand.”
“You are injured worse than I first thought. Your mind is confused. Lorelei, you have been away from Reylea for nearly a year. Do you remember Exodus Day?”
“I remember we were preparing for it.” Dread crept into her heart like a dark infection threatening to consume her completely. “It was close. I know it was, but my mind is cloudy. My memories are veiled like someone has filled my mind with smoke.” Tears ran down her cheeks unchecked. She didn’t care to be strong or stoic any longer. The pain was too much.
Her mate.
Her husband.
A year?
How could a whole year have gone by and she not remember it?
What had Rivian done?
“I am sorry, Lorelei. I would give you more time to process were the situation not so urgent. But we must leave this cabin. Rivian’s warriors hunt you now that the storm has passed. We must get to my Tribe’s land. My Vraka will be able to protect you. You will be safe.” He put the bag of gorcha into a sling of sorts and swung it onto his back. The straps went over both his shoulders. She’d never seen anything like it before.
She’d never seen anything like what surrounded her before.
He handed her a heavy garment. “Put this on. It is cold outside.”
“Cold?”
“We are not on Reylea any longer. This is the planet the magics-benders found. This is where the portal sent us on Exodus Day. The world is Earth. We are in a land called Alaska.” He kept his voice even, quiet, and soothing.
Still the tears flowed.
Still it was too much to process.
She’d lost everything.
Everyone. And now he was saying her mate’s brother had survived and was here and had been in possession of her. For a year?