SCARLETT
When the light finally died, silence fell.
I lay sprawled on the fractured earth, my chest heaving, silver veins still glowing faintly beneath my skin. The battlefield was a graveyard of shadows, their charred remains dissolving into smoke. The fissure had sealed, leaving only a jagged scar on the earth.
But it wasn’t victory.
Not when Kael, Darius, and Lucien stood around me—three Alphas, three predators—staring like I was both salvation and doom.
Kael moved first. He dropped to his knees beside me, his hand cupping my face, his fire scorching hot but trembling with restraint. “Scarlett…” His voice cracked, rough and desperate. “You could’ve killed yourself. You’re not ready for that kind of power.”
His forehead pressed to mine, heat bleeding into my skin, grounding me. “I
