“Not every chain is made of iron. Some are woven from fear.”
The chamber reeked of smoke and blood when they brought me to the center. My wrists were raw where the cuffs had bitten in, my legs heavy, but my wolf snapped inside me, restless, furious.
The stranger circled me like a wolf around prey. His scars glowed faintly silver in the firelight. “Your line was bred for this, Aria. For me. You’ve felt the pull since you first burned in your heat. You thought it was your alphas. But it was me.”
I shook my head, teeth clenched. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” His voice was soft, poisonous. “Even now your wolf stirs. She knows what you are. She knows who you belong to.”
The floor beneath me flared with symbols carved into the stone, silver light spreading like veins of fire. The bindings around
