The collective gasp of three hundred wolves snapping their submission across the pack link didn't sound like victory. It sounded like a wet lung collapsing in Jane’s chest.
She severed the connection. The silence in the subterranean cell rushed back in, heavy and reeking of copper.
Jane opened her eyes. Ryan lay on the freezing concrete, weeping openly, a line of drool and blood connecting his chin to the floor. He didn't look like an Alpha. He looked like a stain.
Then, the Sovereign venom in her veins caught fire.
It didn't start as pain. It started as an agonizingly wet, crushing weight in her pelvis. The adrenaline that had fueled her pack-wide broadcast evaporated in a single second, leaving nothing but the feral venom ripping through her human biology.
Her knees buckled.
She di
