The forest had gone eerily quiet, too quiet for a battlefield that still reeked of blood. The dead lay scattered beneath the moonlight, but all I could hear was the pounding of my heart, the echo of Killian’s kiss, and the shadows still pulsing faintly under my skin.
I wasn’t just a wolf anymore. I wasn’t just a rejected mate.
I was something more—something dangerous.
Killian’s thumb brushed the corner of my mouth, smearing blood that wasn’t mine. His eyes searched mine, stormy and restless, as if he wanted to hold me forever and feared he’d already lost me.
“We can’t stay here,” he murmured, voice low but laced with command. “The hunters will return with reinforcements. They never give up once they’ve found a scent.”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “They called me half-blood. They k
