Smoke still curled from the ruins when dawn finally reached the valley. The mansion that had once gleamed like a monument to power now stood fractured, its towers scorched and broken.
Aurelia watched the sunrise from the edge of the courtyard, arms wrapped around herself. The cold seeped through her torn clothes, but she didn’t move. Her power had drained completely during the night. Only the bond kept her standing a steady thrum beneath her ribs, faint but alive.
Kane approached quietly. The exhaustion in his movements made him seem less an Alpha and more a man who had spent too long carrying too many ghosts.
“They’ll come at first light,” he said.
“They?”
“The Council. They always appear to collect what’s left.”
Aurelia’s fingers tightened around the railing. “Then we face them.”
