The elders did not wait.
They filled the Alpha chamber with age and authority, their presence heavy enough to bend the air. Old wolves, scarred wolves, wolves who remembered when Lucien had first taken the mantle of Alpha when immortality still shone bright and unbroken in his eyes.
Seraphine felt their scrutiny like knives.
She sat upright on the bed, hands folded calmly in her lap, bandages still glowing faintly. The silence pressed down on her chest, but she didn’t flinch.
Lucien stood between her and them.
Deliberately.
“You endangered the pack,” Elder Maelor said, voice like gravel. “You bound our Alpha’s life to an unknown force.”
Seraphine opened her mouth
Lucien cut her off.
“She saved my life.”
Maelor’s eyes narrowed. “At what cost?”
Lucien didn’t answer.
Because he al
