The freezing wind howled through the jagged iron bars of the holding pens, carrying the scent of charred flesh and death from the valley below. I stared at Seraphina, watching the fragile, terrified woman shiver beneath the heavy bear fur I had thrown over her. The golden magic inside my chest, fully awakened by the Lycan King's relentless claiming, thrummed violently against my ribs. A war raged within me. Every instinct forged in my childhood urged me to return to Terracotta Village, to save the pack that had raised me, even if they had stood by silently while Alpha Marcus discarded me for this very woman.
I stepped closer to the iron grate, my deep-toned skin still agonizingly sensitive from Callum's brutal, world-shattering possession. The heavy, thick pool of his seed still rested de
