The beast pressed against my blade, its strength monstrous, inhuman. My arms trembled under the force, my muscles screaming, but I held. Always hold. Always steady. If I broke now, she was gone. Amelia’s gasp cut through the chaos behind me, thin and terrified, and it fueled me like fire in my veins. The bond pulsed sharp in my chest, urging me forward, whispering one truth louder than all the snarls and screams—protect her. With a roar, I shoved upward, knocking the beast back just enough to breathe. Its silver eyes burned, fixed not on me, but on the girl cowering behind my back. My girl. Our mate. Not while I lived. The predator lunged again, faster this time. My blade met it in a flash, sparks bursting in the dark as steel scraped against claw. The impact drove me to one knee, dirt biting into my skin, but I locked my grip and refused to yield. I was stone. I was the wall it could not break. “Jason!” Dimitri’s voice snapped through the fight, sharp and commanding. Out of the
Calm. Always calm. That was my role, my strength. While Dimitri commanded and Mateo raged, I held the line. A steady hand. A shield. The one they leaned on without realizing it. But tonight, calm felt like glass—thin, fragile, ready to shatter under the weight of what hunted us. The creature’s shriek still rang in my ears. Silver eyes glowed through the dark, unrelenting, always finding Amelia no matter how we moved. I kept her behind me, my body a barrier, but every time those eyes locked on her, my pulse spiked, my chest tightened. I wasn’t supposed to feel this way. Not this strong. Not this soon. But the bond didn’t care about rules. It thrummed through me, every heartbeat echoing with hers, every breath reminding me that if she fell, I would too. “Stay with me,” I murmured over my shoulder, low enough only she could hear. Her breath hitched, shaky, but she nodded. Brave girl. Braver than she knew. Mateo roared as he clashed with the beast again, reckless and wild, his body
I couldn’t breathe. Every sound of the fight echoed inside me—steel against claw, the guttural snarls, the crack of bone. I pressed back against Jason, his presence steady as stone, but even his calm couldn’t still the storm inside me. The silver-eyed creature wasn’t just fighting. It was hunting. And I knew, with a certainty that hollowed me out, that it was hunting me. Its gaze kept finding me, even in the chaos. Every lunge, every shift in the battle, curved back toward me like a compass drawn north. I wanted to hide, to make myself small, but my body betrayed me. My legs trembled, my chest burned, and I couldn’t look away. Mateo fought like fire, wild and unrelenting, every strike fueled by rage and something far more dangerous. His body was already marked by the clash—blood slicking his arm, a gash across his cheek—but still he refused to yield. He was a shield made of fury, and for me, he would break himself if it meant I lived. Dimitri was different. He moved with precisi
The air was poison. Not in the literal sense, but in the way it clogged the lungs, heavy with blood and fear. My blade was steady in my hand, but beneath the practiced calm, my instincts snarled. The silver-eyed creature circled like it owned the night, and my pack—my brothers, my mate—stood in its shadow. Control. Always control. It was the first rule I lived by. Jason fought with patience. Mateo fought with rage. But me? I carried the weight of order. If I slipped, even for a heartbeat, everything fell apart. And right now, we could not afford to break. “Jason,” I barked, never taking my eyes from the monster. “Keep her behind you. No matter what.” He didn’t argue. He never did. His loyalty was his strength, his flaw. And tonight, it was the thread holding Amelia upright. She was shaking, wide-eyed, her scent tangling with terror and something else—something raw that stirred in me when I least needed it. Mateo was a storm beside me, all violence and fury. He clashed with the
The world shattered into chaos.One second, Mateo was standing in front of me, every inch of him coiled muscle and fury. The next, something burst from the shadows—a monster with silver eyes and teeth like knives. It struck with a speed that didn’t seem real, slamming into him with enough force to shake the earth.I screamed, but the sound was drowned out by the clash of steel and the guttural roars that filled the night. Mateo held his ground, snarling, his blade flashing as he fought back. The thing was enormous, its body moving with a predator’s grace, too fast, too strong.Jason pulled me back, his grip iron around my arm. “Stay behind me!”I wanted to, I really did, but my eyes refused to leave Mateo. He was swallowed by shadows and silver glints of light, his growls blending with the beast’s in a blur of violence. My heart hammered, not just with fear, but with something sharper. Something I couldn’t name.Dimitri stepped forward, his presence a storm barely contained. His sword
Blood sang in my ears.The night was alive with movement—steel flashing, snarls tearing the silence, the stench of fear sharp in the air. I moved through it like instinct, like hunger, my blade cutting a path before thought could catch up. Fighting was the only thing that ever felt natural, the only place where the world made sense.But tonight was different.Because she was here.Amelia. Her scent threaded through the chaos, fragile and maddening. Sweet beneath the copper tang of blood. Every instinct in me howled to protect her, to keep her hidden, shielded, mine. And it drove me half-mad because I couldn’t be in two places at once.“Jason—cover her!” I growled, slamming an attacker into the dirt so hard the bones cracked like dry branches.Jason was already there, steady and unshakable, his blade flashing as he blocked the strike aimed at her. Dimitri’s orders cut through the madness, sharp as his steel, but I barely heard them. My focus narrowed, tunneling in on the girl who had n