Page 30 of Shifting Hearts 1
“…Raven,” I say finally.
His gaze sharpens. Not with recognition, but with something else. Something deeper.
“Raven,” he repeats, like he’s testing the weight of it. “That name doesn’t belong to the lost.”
I look away, heart pounding. “Then maybe it doesn’t belong to me.”
THREE
Kieran
Raven.
The name settles in my chest like a stone dropped into deep water, no ripple. Just weight.
It doesn’t match the girl in front of me. Not entirely. She’s too raw, too fractured. Even so, something about her feels familiar, not from memory but from a myth.
I release her slowly, letting her find her balance. She’s still trembling, but I don’t think it’s from weakness. Something is waking inside her, something that doesn’t know how to be quiet.
“You said she spoke to you,” I murmur. “The woman in your vision.”
Raven nods, arms wrapped tightly around herself. “She had my eyes but older, sharper. Like she’d seen too much.”
I watch her carefully. “Did she say anything else?”
“Only what I told you.”
I exhale slowly. That phrase scratches at something buried not in me but in the Brotherhood’s lore, in the stories passed down in firelight and blood.
Echoes. Lost blood. Moon-born power.
I’ve heard whispers, half-truths, and warnings, but none of them ever came with a name.
Until now.
“You’re not just a stray,” I say quietly. “You’re something they tried to erase.”
Her eyes snap to mine, wide and storm-bright. “Who’s they?”
I shake my head. “Not sure yet, but if you’re what I think you are…”
I don’t finish the sentence because if I’m right, she’s not just dangerous.
She's a prophecy.
And every pack, every dragon clan, every blood-bound alpha will want her gone before she figures out what she is.
Lira was my first mate. Chosen by the elders and bound through ritual. She steadied me when my fire threatened to consume everything. She was kind, brave, loyal, but she wasn’t fated.
She didn’t wake the storm in my blood, didn’t make the flame inside me sing, not like Raven does.
From the moment I touched her, something ancient stirred. It wasn’t just heat or hunger. It was recognition.
My dragon, buried beneath years of exile and restraint, rose like it had been waiting. Not for a fight. Not for vengeance.
Forher.
Fated mates are rare among dragons. They’re dangerous. The bond doesn’t just link hearts, it fuses power. It amplifies magic. It can either elevate us to legend… or burn the world down. That’s why the Brotherhood forbids it.
