Alyssa’s POV Darkness wraps around me like a heavy blanket. I drift. Float. Fall. Pain ripples through my limbs like fire licking every nerve. I want to scream, but I can’t even move. Can’t breathe. Shapes blur in and out—shadows bending over me, voices muttering, none of it clear. But I remember the bite. The teeth sinking in. My scream. I remember the howl. My howl. Wild and broken. “She’s not healing,” someone says, their voice strained. “What’s happening to her?” a different voice, panicked. “The shuck’s poison is running through her blood,” the first answers, grim. I try to shift, to heal, to reach my wolf—but nothing answers. Why isn’t she healing me? Why can’t I feel her? Am I dying? I sink again. Deeper. Into dreams that aren’t mine. I see a figure—faceless, but warm. A p

