The sound that left Kael’s chest was not a word.
It tore through Moonrise Hall like a blade through canvas, a roar so deep and animal that the lamps shuddered in their brackets and a woman in the gallery cried out. His shoulders had begun to change. Ariana saw fur ripple at his wrists, saw his fingers lengthen, saw the gold in his eyes burn through to something blinding. “Mine,” he said, and the word was gravel and thunder. “She is mine.”
The hall exploded. Redstone’s warriors surged to their feet in the gallery, hands dropping to knives. Ironwood’s men moved a half beat later, a green tide rising to meet them. Garrick Slate bellowed for order he had no intention of keeping. Somewhere Roan Thorne shouted, “Fight! Brilliant, I’ve money on the Alpha!” and Dax and a dozen Shadowfang wolves
