Elara
The summons came at dawn.
The sky still wore its pale gray veil, the last of the stars fading behind clouds, when a messenger’s knock rattled against my chamber door. His voice, low and urgent, carried through the wood.
“The elders demand the presence of the Alpha King and his brother.”
I felt the words ripple through me like cold water. The elders rarely called for both Dominic and Xavier at once. Their council was reserved for matters of survival war, betrayal, bloodlines. And now, after Isabella’s disgrace, after the whispers that bled through the pack like wildfire, they wanted answers.
I rose, my fingers brushing over the stone sill of the window. The air that came through smelled of wet earth and pine, sharp and clean, yet heavy with unease. In the courtyard below, I could
