DAMION'S POV
The training grounds stretched wider each day, carved out by necessity rather than choice. Every sunrise brought more enemies—creatures lurking from shadows, their hunger fixed on my people. They weren’t like the beasts we’d battled before. These carried a different stench, a darkness clinging to them that made Alex, my wolf, snarl inside me.
And it all began the moment the little servant girl collapsed after saving that ungrateful brat, Sera.
Coincidence? I doubted it.
I mounted the stairs to her chamber, every step weighted with irritation I didn’t want to admit was concern. I told myself I didn’t give a damn, that I never had and never would about a female. Yet Alex was restless, prowling, pushing me toward her door as though she was the only thing in this cursed castl
