The room felt too small. Too tight. I couldn’t breathe.
Phil’s voice dropped lower, rougher. “We cut our palms. Mixed blood. Spoke the binding words under the full moon.” His eyes flicked to Luka briefly before settling back on me. “It’s an old ritual. Older than most laws. It doesn’t just make someone ‘family’… it ties them to the pack’s magic.”
A cold weight settled in my stomach.
“What does that mean?” I asked quietly.
“It means,” Luka said, his voice controlled but edged with something sharp, “you attempted to bind a human to a supernatural system that was never meant to hold them.”
Phil didn’t deny it.
“I was trying to save him,” he said simply.
“And you might have done more than that,” Joel added, his head still bowed.
I looked between them, my pulse starting to race. “More h
