Lyra
The pack was howling for my blood.
I didn’t need to step outside to feel it for their voices pressed against the windows like a storm of rage and betrayal. Every word of gossip, every twisted whisper Damon and Selene had planted, had grown into a forest of hate. It surrounded me, suffocating, hungry.
But I wasn’t afraid. Not this time. If it were in my last life, this would have broken me. But I was different now. I had been tried with fire and I had been hardened in ways that neither of them will ever know.
Killian’s quarters were dim, the fire in the hearth burning low. He had stepped out briefly, no doubt to meet with Luca, but the bond between us was steady. It was threaded with calculation, not panic. He didn’t doubt me. That knowledge was enough to anchor me while the world
