[Emma's POV]
The Elder’s ultimatum didn't just hang in the air—it seeped into the very stone of Blackwood Manor, a toxic vapor of absolute authority and promised extinction. Inside, the grand foyer, already scarred by the gate’s destruction, became the epicenter of a furious, contained storm.
Jaxon, moving with the preternatural speed of an Alpha whose mate was threatened, had me up the sweeping staircase and down the hall before the last syllable of the threat had faded. He didn't take me to my room, with its pretty but fragile lock. He took me to the heart of his power—the Alpha’s chambers.
The heavy, iron-banded door slammed shut behind us with a sound of finality. I heard the thick, wooden bar, used only in times of siege, slide home with a sickening, definitive thud. Then the scr
