Gaster shook his head. “They were in stasis for a few months, that is all. The last two years were normal for them, but clearly, someone has changed the timeline.”

I opened and closed my mouth, no words emerging, because I was too stunned to form coherent thoughts, let alone speech. All of the packs had remembered this new version of the timeline, none of them questioning the small inconsistencies. How was the being who did this powerful enough to change the minds of tens of thousands of shifters?

Sam reacted to the devastation on my face, inching closer to wrap her arm around me. “What did he say?” she bit out. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, swallowing roughly. “No, I’m really not okay. He told me I arrived here two years ago, and there was no long-term stasis with Torma. Which all boils down to the fact that I’m not missing two months of memories… I’m missing two years.”

Her brow furrowed as she stared at me. “You know,” she said slowly. “I have the memories of Torma being locked down, but a part of me also remembers applying to them during what should have been the stasis. Applying and getting rejected.”

There were many holes in this entire fucking situation, but Sam, like all the others, had just brushed off her confusion. I was the only one who couldn’t stop picking.

“You were brought here by our master, the Shadow Beast,” Gaster continued, bringing my scattered attention back to him.

“The Shadow Beast?” I confirmed, once again parroting him in shock.

A flutter hit me hard in my chest, and it was different to the one I’d felt in Torma. My palm was itching again too, stronger than ever, and in the same moment, my wolf surged to the surface, almost forcing me to shift.

Somehow I managed to wrest her back because we had to stay in this form to ask our questions. “I know the Shadow Beast?”

Gaster nodded. “Oh, yes, very well. You’re friends. Maybe more than friends, I think, even though I wasn’t really privy to the inner workings of your relationship. But I never saw him treat anyone the way he treated you. You’re special, Mera. You changed the beast for the better, and for a powerful being who has spent two thousand years ruling with fear and control, that means something.”

None of this felt real, and yet… I believed him. I felt it deep in my chest, where a huge, gaping hole existed. A hole that Torin had tried to fill, but he’d been a poor substitute for what I’d truly lost.

A mate.

“Shadow.” I tested the name on my tongue, and Inky responded by wrapping around me.

“You called him that,” Gaster said with excitement. “Are you starting to remember?”