ALEXANDER
The light from the moon didn’t soothe; it scraped. It pressed through stone and iron as if the sky itself wanted in.
I’d felt it coming for days... a tightening under my ribs. Adrian paced the edges of my mind with a hunger that didn’t bother to hide its teeth.
That was why I had chosen one of my family’s strongholds. Why I’d ordered the chains. Old wards carved into the lintels, ancestor-ink worked into the mortar. Cole had argued until he was hoarse, then done as I asked: iron wrapped in runes, bolts scored into the bedrock.
The links bit where they touched, leaving red welts where metal met skin. Heavy enough to teach a wolf humility.
They should have been enough.
When the moon crested, everything changed. Sweat trickled down my spine, pooling at the small of my back. M
