He rose over the circle and was merciless.
Steam rose where it had smeared across the stones. The smell of rut and iron clung to the air, seared into every wolf’s flesh. They moved in slowly, like fractured waves—some slinking off in shame, others still twitching with lust, mouths raw from chanting Rael’s name until they bled.
A female hunched in the dirt, thighs slick with blood and seed, still murmuring Rael’s name like a prayer as her mate pawed at her to follow him away. A male openly wept, clawing at his face as though the memory could be scratched from his flesh. Others licked blood from their fingers with glassy devotion, smiles through split lips as if worship had not ended.
Rael himself stood unmoving at the center of it, Vera bound to his chest by the tether, her body inscrib
