Zarek.
I sighed and walked out of the hall without another word. The elders called after me, their voices thin and pleading, but I didn’t look back. I didn’t trust myself to. If I opened my mouth again, I wasn’t sure whether a sentence or a snarl would come out.
The corridor was empty and the echo of their demands looped in my head. Danika. Of all the names thrown at me, hers clawed at the edges of my mind like something that didn’t belong.
I dragged a hand down my face and let out a breath that trembled. I could not picture it—couldn’t imagine closeness with her, the warmth of her skin, the smell of her. Nothing about Danika pulled at me. Nothing about her woke any part of me that wasn’t bone-deep dread and instinct to survive. And yet the wolf inside me snarled for blood, for an heir,
