I woke up with a wolf breathing down my neck.

Not a dog. A wolf. Big enough to swallow my head. Its hot breath ruffled my hair and its teeth were an inch from my throat.

I couldn't remember my name.

I couldn't remember anything before the cold floor of this lighthouse. Stone walls. Salt in the air. A storm howling outside the round window. And the wolf.

I tried to move. My body hurt like I'd been dragged over rocks. My knees stung. My throat was raw from seawater that I couldn't remember swallowing.

The wolf growled low. Not attacking. Guarding. Its massive head tilted, watching me like it was waiting for me to remember something important.

Then a voice in my head, not mine.

[System Activated. Host: Elara Voss. Status: Amnesiac.]

I flinched. What?

[Warning: You are in Alpha Kade Blackthorn's lighthouse. He thinks you are human.]

[Instruction: Pretend to be human. If he finds out what you really are, you die.]

My hands went cold. Elara Voss. That name meant nothing, but the System said it like it meant danger.

Before I could answer the voice, a door slammed upstairs.

Footsteps. Heavy boots down stone stairs, slow, deliberate. The wolf's ears pricked and it stood, moving away from me toward the sound, its tail low. Protective, but not of me. Of him.

A man came into view.

He was not a man.

He was too tall, too broad, soaked from the storm. Black hair stuck to his forehead, dripping onto his shoulders. Black shirt clinging to a chest that rose like a wall, every muscle cut from years of holding this tower alone. Eyes the color of a storm sea, grey and brutal, and they landed on me like I was prey that had wandered into his den and had the audacity to live.

Kade Blackthorn. Even without memory, my body knew that name meant danger. My pulse jumped into my throat.

"You shouldn't be awake," he said. His voice was rough, like he hadn't used it in days, like gravel dragged over stone.

I opened my mouth. No name came out. "Where—"

"My lighthouse. You washed up three days ago. A human girl, half-drowned, tangled in my nets. I should have left you for the tide. It would have been kinder."

Human girl. The System is said to pretend to be human. So I was supposed to be human. Play human. Breathe like a human.

"I'm—" I swallowed, my voice hoarse. "Thank you for saving me."

He stared, water dripping from him onto the stone floor. The wolf, which must have been his, moved to his side and sat. Still staring at me. Both of them were staring, like they were listening to more than my words.

"What's your name, human?"

Panic spiked sharp in my chest. I had no name. The System said Elara Voss, but was I supposed to say that? What if Voss was the thing that would get me killed?

[Say Elara. It's a human name. Do not mention Voss bloodline. He will kill you if he hears Voss.]

"Elara," I whispered. "My name is Elara."

He took a step closer. The air changed instantly. It got heavier, like before a lightning strike, charged and thick. My skin prickled and my hair stood on end. There was a scent coming off him, pine and storm and something wild that made my knees weak.

"Elara," he repeated, like tasting it, rolling it in his mouth to see if it was a lie. "You were not breathing when I found you. Your heart was not beating. Your skin was ice. Now it is warm. Now it beats. Explain that, human."

I had no explanation. My hands shook on the cold floor. I looked down — I was in an oversized black shirt, not mine, barely covering my thighs. It smelled like him. My legs were scratched, bruised, covered in faint silver lines that didn't look like normal scars. My neck—

I touched my neck without thinking. There were two faint scars there, old, like bite marks, but healed into pearly white.

Kade saw me touch them. His jaw tightened so hard a muscle jumped.

"Don't touch that," he snapped, too fast, too angry.

"Did you— did you bite me?"

He laughed, no humor in it, a short brutal sound. "I don't bite humans. You're not worth the mark. A mark is forever. You are temporary."

Mark. The word sent a shiver down my spine that wasn't fear. Something deeper. Like my body remembered a mark even if my mind didn't. Like my blood remembered teeth.

The System pinged again, urgently.

[Scan complete. The host is 19 years old. Blood type: Ashen. Concealed. He cannot smell it yet because of sea salt and storms. If he smells it, he will kill you. Ashen burned his first mate.]

[Second Warning: Do not go into the basement. Do not answer the crystal.]

Basement? I hadn't even known there was a basement. This was a single round room.

As if it heard my thought, a cold draft came from somewhere behind me. From under the floor. A faint light, pulsing, silver-white, beating like a heart that wasn't mine.

Kade's head snapped toward it too. His eyes narrowed, his whole body going rigid. The wolf growled.

"You feel it too," he said quietly, not looking at me anymore. His voice had dropped to something dangerous.

"Feel what?"

He didn't answer. He walked past me, past the wolf, to a heavy wooden trapdoor in the floor I hadn't seen before. It was locked with three iron bars and a chain that looked older than the lighthouse itself, covered in symbols that burned my eyes if I looked too long.

He put his hand on it. The chain rattled, not from his touch, but from below.

From below, something tapped back. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Exactly three times. Patient. Knowing.

My blood went ice cold.

That was not water. That was not wind. That was knuckles on crystal. On a crystal coffin.

Kade went very still. The ruthless Alpha I had just met — the man who looked like he feared nothing, who owned this coast — went pale under his storm tan.

"No," he whispered, to the door, to whatever was underneath. "You are still sleeping. You promised you would sleep."

Tap. Tap. Tap. Again. More insistent. Almost playful.

And then, very clearly, from under the floor, from under those chains, a girl's voice. A voice exactly like mine, but older, amused, hungry.

"Elara? Is that you? Did you finally bring me a body? Did you bring me his pup?"

I scrambled back until my back hit the stone wall, hitting hard. My heart hammered so loud I was sure Kade could hear it. I couldn't breathe.

Kade turned to me slowly. His storm eyes were now black, wolf eyes, glowing faintly in the dim lighthouse. His claws were out.

"What is your full name?" he asked. His voice was no longer human. It was Alpha command that made my bones want to kneel.

The System screamed in my head, red light flashing behind my eyes.

[DO NOT SAY VOSS! DO NOT SAY VOSS! DO NOT SAY VOSS! CONTAINMENT BREACH! SHE KNOWS YOU ARE HERE!]

But the voice from the basement laughed, sweet and terrible, echoing through the stones, and said the name for me, stealing my choice.

"Her name is Elara Voss, Kade. My little sister. My perfect spare body. My replacement. And she's carrying your pup now, isn't she? I can smell it all the way down here. Half god, half wolf. Perfect for me to wear."

Kade's gaze dropped to my stomach. His nose flared, inhaling. The wolf beside him whined.

And for the first time, I felt it too — a second heartbeat inside me. Small. Fast. Not mine. Growing under my ribs like a tiny storm.

Half god, half wolf.