Jaxon POV
The hallway stretched before me, a dim corridor of polished oak and flickering lanterns, their golden glow barely holding back the shadows that clung to the walls. My boots echoed softly, each step a heavy thud as I strode away from Darius’s guest quarters, my heart still pounding from our confrontation. His words—“Let Lyra come with me, her true mate”—burned in my mind, a fresh wound layered over the old scars of exile and betrayal.
My wolf growled low in my chest, his fury a constant hum, urging me to act, to protect what was mine—Lyra, my wife, my Luna, the heart of this pack I’d built from nothing. The mansion was quiet, the pack still stirring in the early dawn, the air thick with the scent of wax and woodsmoke, a reminder of the fragile truce we’d clung to last night. My
