Kaelor looked at the clasp in my hand like it was a blade pressed to his throat.
Not because he feared it. Because another man had given it to me.
The forest tightened around that truth. Wolves stood between the trees, half-shadow and half-fang, moonlight caught in their eyes. Low growls threaded the dark.
Waiting.
Which meant someone had taught them discipline. Kaelor filled the tunnel mouth, blood-dark hair loose, his wolf burning too close beneath his skin. His eyes were gold in the dark.
Predator gold.
The kind that made every instinct in me count distances, weapons, exits. Behind me, the tunnel breathed damp stone and rot.
Ahead of me, Ashmoore’s Alpha watched the trees where the nameless man had vanished. Then his gaze cut to me.
I knew accusation. The shape of it in a handle
