The moon was bleeding behind the clouds, casting a sickly glow across the clearing where everything had gone wrong.
Selene could feel the silver burning through her fur, blistering her skin beneath. The cuffs dug deep into her wrists, hissing where they met flesh. Her body convulsed with every breath, each inhale tainted by smoke, blood, and something worse - fear.
The kind she hadn’t felt since she was a pup.
All around her, the lycan quads were down. Cassius was half-shifted, his beast fighting to break through but collapsing again under a silver-tipped spear pinning his shoulder. Lucien lay sprawled near a fallen tree, blood soaking into the earth beneath him. Beta Darius was still trying to drag himself up with a shattered leg, and Xander — gods, have mercy on him - was unconscious
