Adolphu’s POV
"What are you saying?"
She took a step closer, her voice dropping to something almost conspiratorial. "If you want to be an Alpha fast, Cassandra is the way."
I jerked back as if she had struck me. "I will never take a title that way."
Katrina studied me for a long moment before she said, "But if you think about it, Cassandra saved your life. Maybe the Moon Goddess wants you to be together."
Something inside me twisted.
I had no memory of my life before the day I was found in the forest, half-dead and without a name. Cassandra had been there when I woke up, claiming she had saved me. That she had found me, rescued me.
But now…
I rubbed a hand over my temple, feeling an ache forming at the back of my skull.
"Where did you and Cassandra find me last year when I was unconscious?" I suddenly asked, and she tensed.
A long silence stretched between us before she finally lifted her eyes to meet mine, her expression guarded.
"Why are you asking that now?"
"Because I need to know," I said firmly.
That’s what I wanted to ask her when I told her earlier to see me. But she said a clear no, and I had no idea why.
I was desperate to know.
Her gaze flickered with something I couldn’t quite read. But then she sighed and answered.
"Near the river. In the eastern forest."
Something stirred in my chest, a strange unease.
“What happened in that river? Can you tell me, please?”
"You were barely breathing," she continued, her voice quieter now. "Your clothes were torn, you had a sword in your grip, and… there were vultures circling."
As soon as she said vultures, something cracked open in my mind.
A flash of dark skies.
Blood dripping from my fingers.
Shadows moving in the trees.
The cold weight of steel in my hand.
The memories flickered, fast and incomplete, like pieces of a puzzle I couldn’t quite put together. A scream, mine or someone else’s. Trees looming like monsters. A golden emblem flashing under the moonlight.
And Katrina. Her face—not calm or composed, but terrified. She had looked at me like I was something she didn’t fully understand. Something dangerous.
Katrina was watching me carefully now. "Why are you asking this?”
"I’ve been getting flashes," I admitted slowly, staring at her to see if she'd admit. "Pieces of memories. That day I was found in the forest..." I trailed off, my voice dropping into something barely above a whisper. "Her face... it wasn’t the first thing I saw."
Katrina frowned. "What do you mean?"
I lifted my gaze to hers, and in that moment, something clicked.
I didn’t know how, but I knew it. The memories were fractured, scattered like shattered glass, but one thing was certain—before Cassandra, I saw Katrina.
"It was you I first saw."
Her breath hitched.
She looked away quickly, but not before I caught the shift in her expression—shock, then guilt, then something else. Something like fear.
"You remember that?" she said, her voice barely audible.
"Just pieces," I said. "But they feel real. Too real."
She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold despite the warmth of the room. "You weren’t supposed to remember."
I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she took a shaky breath and turned away from me.
And I knew. There was more to that day in the forest. Cassandra wasn’t the hero everyone, including myself, believed her to be. More than either of them had told me. And Katrina had just confirmed it without saying a word.