เข้าสู่ระบบI howl again, this time softer, and he answers with a story about a case we almost lost but didn’t. The logic of it slips into the cracks between my animal thoughts, scaffolding the mind that will have to rebuild itself come morning. I circle the mat, then collapse onto it, spent. The hours run tog
The cage is perfect. I pace the perimeter on all fours, claws clicking a Morse code into the steel plates. I scratch at the base of the glass, not to escape, but to leave a mark. Ownership is an animal principle, and this is my territory, at least for the night. The drapes are tight; no light leaks
The fingers are gone now, replaced by something more honest: claws, black as ink, the quick still visible at the base but receding with every pulse. I flex the new hands, feel the bones in my wrist slide and lock, the pads on my palm ballooning with fluid. I touch my face, expecting to find myself,
Time loses meaning. The tremors become convulsions, each one wringing a cry from my throat. I try to keep quiet, to preserve some shred of dignity, but the sound is animal and helpless. I’m aware of the comm, aware of Lucas’s voice counting down—twenty, fifteen, ten—but it’s all background to the ri
I sit on the mat, legs folded, palms flat on the rubber, and force myself to relax. The wolf hates this, but I have trained her well—she will wait, for now. The tremors are building, a low electrical current in every limb. I close my eyes and count backwards from one hundred, each number another dro
The secure suite is three floors beneath the city, built into the bones of a parking garage that’s never been full in the history of its existence. Access is by biometric lock, every surface surveilled and air-gapped, a paranoia project that cost more than my law school tuition and was worth every d
I let them watch me as I unfurl into motion, as I take my time, a tigress stretching beneath a lazy sun. The documents make a soft, lethal sound as they hit the glass, echoing back to fill the silence. These papers are my arsenal, my map to the battlefield I will carve from this sterile room. I ar
The air thrums with ambition, the kind that leaves marks like teeth on skin. I step into the boardroom, a half dozen pairs of eyes pulling toward me as if gravity's force has just shifted. The glass walls loom like a watchful sky, reflections doubling back on themselves, encasing us in a tower of ou
I gather the pieces of myself and leave the office. My own intentions are as fractured as his. I cannot think straight with the scent of him so fresh, so insistent, so much like a promise. The door swings shut behind me, cutting off the warmth and memory of Derek's presence with surgical precision
I stiffen, a snarl forming at the back of my throat, before I manage to smooth it into something more civil, more human. This is not what I expected, not what I am prepared for. I should have known. I should have known he'd come. "Mara," his voice drawls, easy and confident, but I hear the challeng







