Roman My wolf had been pacing since sundown, and by midnight I was starting to feel like I was losing an argument with my own instincts. I sat hunched over the makeshift desk in that hunting cabin with three monitors glowing pale blue in the dark, and forced myself to keep reading instead of driving straight through the Vale estate's front gate like a man with zero self control. That symbol Dahlia had described over text, I already knew exactly what it meant before she sent the photo. Serena's mark. The same one burned into the burner phone casing. I stared at the picture on my screen and felt something cold settle low in my gut. “Stop doing that thing," Morgan said through my earpiece, voice crackling faintly. "You go quiet and I know you're two seconds from doing something stupid."

