Austin leaned against the weathered fence of the Shadow Pack’s training grounds, the late afternoon sun casting long shadows across the fields. The air was crisp with the scent of pine and earth, but his chest felt tight, a restless ache that hadn’t eased since Serena’s brief stay with his pack. Her fire witch powers—wild, radiant, dangerous—had captivated him from the moment she’d skated onto the ice in that first hockey match, her defiance against Hart Sloan blazing brighter than any flame. Now, with her fever worsening, the moonroot ritual looming, and the Blood Moon pack’s dangers closing in, Austin’s feelings for her had grown into something he couldn’t ignore: a fierce need to protect her, to offer her a home where she could be free. But the mate bond tying her to the Sloan triplets—
