Rael’s POVI feel the shift before anyone else. It settles into the air like the first drop of rain before a storm. Her breathing changes, her body trembles, and though Dagen’s knot is still locked deep inside her, I know her heat is already returning. It shouldn’t be possible, not this soon, not after what she’s just endured, but nothing about Veyra has followed the rules from the start. Her body is changing in ways none of us fully understand, and now we’re all forced to watch it happen without knowing how to help her.I step closer, unable to stop myself. Every instinct I have tells me to stay back, to let the others handle this, but I can't. Not when I can feel the pulse of her confusion and fear vibrating in the air between us. She doesn't even lift her head when I kneel beside her. She just stays there, her breathing unsteady, her body locked in that fragile stillness that tells me she is holding on by nothing more than instinct now.“You drank from him,” I say softly, my voice
Veyra POV
Vane POVMaybe I am pathetic for not getting any sense of satisfaction from all this new information. I should feel justified, maybe even triumphant, but all I feel is the dull churn of frustration low in my chest. Rael should have told us. With his background as a rogue, even if he no longer claims it, he should have been the one to warn us about what could happen. Instead, he kept quiet, and now he stands there trying to explain it away with a shrug, claiming she didn't act like this before. That excuse falls flat. It doesn't sit right. It feels like he is hiding something, and I do not trust half-answers when we are surrounded by people who could snap at any second.He has been holding back from the start, and this is just another reminder that I do not really know who he is or what else he might be keeping from us. The more I think about it, the more it eats at me. If Kieran had lived, maybe we would have had answers, but now he is dead. Whatever Dagen wanted to ask him has been l
Maddox's POVShe’s only this wild, this reckless, because she’s refusing to give in to her heat. It makes people act out in ways they usually wouldn’t, makes them volatile, desperate. It drives them to do insane things, like pinning a man to a wall and shattering half the bones in his body.He’s recovering. Slowly. His wolf isn’t strong enough to bounce back as quickly as the rest of us might.But it’s saved him, unfortunately.I watch her pace the room, restless energy rolling off her like a storm with nowhere to land. Dagen’s across the room talking to a cluster of people, explaining that things are changing, that Kieran is no longer Alpha. The words are firm, resolute, and no one dares question him.Not because they agree. Not because they understand. But because they know better. If someone so much as raises their voice in protest, Dagen will silence them before they take another breath. Still, I can feel the tension hanging in the air, heavy and electric. People are unsettled. Ma