Mated to alpha prince I can't remember

Prologue The first thing I feel is silk. It glides under my fingertips like liquid moonlight. My lashes flutter open, but even before I fully wake, I know something is wrong. The air is too still. The sheets are too soft. And my body aches like I’ve been asleep for centuries. I bolt upright, gasping. The room is massive. Opulent. Marble floors gleam beneath the golden chandeliers above me. Velvet curtains fall in heavy waves across windows that stretch higher than any I’ve seen. And the bed—gods, the bed is big enough to fit four. This isn’t mine. None of this is. I don’t know where I am. I don’t even know who I am. Panic twists in my chest. I throw the covers off and swing my legs over the side, but the floor bites cold against my bare feet. My knees wobble. There’s a mirror across the room. I stumble toward it. The girl who stares back at me is pale, trembling, with wide eyes and a faint scar curling along her wrist like a silver crescent. My breath catches. I don’t recognize her. I don’t recognize me. The door creaks. I spin. A man stands in the doorway, tall and lethal. His hair is black as night, his jaw sharp, and his eyes—gods, his eyes are molten gold. But it’s the power radiating off of him that makes my knees buckle. Alpha. Somehow, I know what he is, even if I don’t know how. My blood responds before my brain does, rushing hot and wild through my veins. “You’re awake,” he says. His voice is a velvet growl. I shrink back, heart slamming in my chest. “Where am I? Who—who are you?” He steps closer. Each movement is controlled, predatory. My breath hitches. “You don’t remember me.” It’s not a question. He stops just short of touching me. My body trembles. Not in fear. In recognition I can’t understand. “You’re mine,” he says darkly. “My mate. My Queen. And I will make you remember.” Chapter One Lyra I can’t breathe. My lungs contract like they’re folding in on themselves. I back away from the man—the Alpha—until my spine hits the carved post of the massive bed. The scent of him is all around me, warm and woodsy, something feral curled beneath it. It should scare me. It does scare me. But gods help me, it also pulls at something deeper, some thread I don’t understand. “There must be some mistake,” I whisper. “I don’t remember anything. Not you. Not this place. Not even my own name.” The Alpha watches me with a gaze too sharp to be anything but dangerous. He doesn’t look surprised. He doesn’t even blink. “Your name is Lyra.” The word curls around me like smoke. Lyra. I mouth it to myself. It feels foreign. But not wrong. “Why am I here?” His expression doesn’t soften. “Because you ran from me. And now you’re back.” My heart stumbles. I ran? From him? I glance toward the door, calculating the distance. Could I make it past him? Would he let me? Probably not. Something tells me this man is used to being obeyed. He must see the panic rising in my face, because he exhales through his nose and takes a step back. “You’re safe now,” he says. “No one here will harm you.” It’s not comforting. Because the real fear isn’t what they might do. It’s what I might remember. Later, after he leaves with tight shoulders and unreadable eyes, a maid brings me food. She’s quiet and graceful, but I can feel her eyes on me when she thinks I’m not looking. I scarf down bread and stew like I haven’t eaten in days. Maybe I haven’t. The ache in my stomach confirms that much, at least. When she takes my plate, I finally find my voice. “What’s his name? The man from earlier.” She freezes. Then says softly, “Alpha Prince Kael.” Prince. The word hits harder than it should. Royalty. Power. Bloodlines. I swallow. “And I… knew him?” She nods once. “You were his mate.” Were. Something in me sharpens at the past tense. Was I his mate, or am I still? That night, sleep comes in shards. I toss beneath the soft sheets, the ceiling too high above me. My limbs feel heavy, but my mind spins. The room smells faintly of Kael. Everything does. At some hour before dawn, I dream of fire. Flames surround me, licking the edges of my memory. Someone is shouting. Someone is pulling me away. Hands grab me, too tight. Screams echo in my head—mine, someone else’s, I don’t know. I see a golden gaze through the smoke. Then nothing. I wake drenched in sweat, heart thundering in my chest. My door is closed. Locked from the outside. I press my back to it, sliding down until I sit curled on the floor. My hands tremble. The scar on my wrist aches. Who was I? What did I run from? And why does the Alpha Prince look at me like I broke him?