MasukI scented her before the door opened, her copper-honey fragrance cutting through the miasma of blood and fear. Ares surged forward, anticipation coursing through our veins like lightning. Our Queen had returned. Our mate had come back to us after rejecting what we were. My fingers tightened around the heated metal rod as I turned to face the doorway, Julian's whimpers fading to white noise behind me. There she stood, framed in torchlight, her face unreadable as she took in the scene before he
I paced the length of my office, claws tearing into the carpet with each step. Ares paced with me, his obsidian presence so close to the surface that black fur rippled across my hands, canines pushing against my bottom lip as I fought to maintain even partial control. Three days. Three days since Amelia had run, since I’d watched her disappear into the forest with tears streaming down her face. And now, the night of the second blood moon, we still had nothing.Not a trace of Amelia. Not a single lead on Sera or Sam. Nothing but empty rooms, hollow explanations, and the growing certainty that every second we wasted in the palace was another second Amelia spent in the hands of the Voice.I slammed my fist into the wall, plaster cracking beneath the blow. Pain lanced up my arm, a momentary distraction from the fear that had been eating me alive since I’d watched Amelia’s copper hair disappear between the trees.
I woke to cold air biting my skin and a pain in my neck like I’d slept wrong for days. My eyelids felt weighted, my mouth dry and tasting of something metallic and wrong. I blinked, forcing my eyes open against the dim light that made my head throb, and the world slowly swam into focus around me.Stone walls, slick with moisture. A rough wooden desk directly in front of me. The prickling burn of wolfsbane against my wrists, which I realised with a jolt were bound to the arms of the chair I sat in. The silver cuffs gleamed in the low light of the single lantern on the desk, their surfaces etched with patterns that made my stomach turn, protection runes, the kind meant to contain a wolf’s power.I wasn’t alone.“Ah, she’s awake.” The voice came from behind the desk, feminine and tinged with a satisfaction that made my skin crawl.I looked up, and my breath caught in my throat. Across from me sat a woman I’d only see
I ran through the city with tears streaming down my face, my bare feet slapping against cobblestones still cool with morning dew. The streets were mercifully empty; too early for merchants, too late for night owls, leaving me free to run without witnesses to the Queen’s breakdown. I’d left the palace with nothing but the thin robe clutched around my body, my hair wild around my face, my mind still echoing with the memory of Sera’s voice. Of my hands around Lukas’s throat. Of the moment I’d nearly killed the man I loved.“I nearly killed him,” I gasped to the empty street, the words tearing my throat raw. “I nearly killed Lukas.”Athena stirred beneath my skin, her copper presence a warm counterpoint to the ice in my veins. She pushed forward, offering strength, offering comfort, but even she couldn’t drown out the horror of what had happened. I’d been riding Lukas, my body joined with his in the most int
I stood on the palace steps, bare feet cold against the stone, my chest heaving from the desperate run through the corridors. Dawn light crept across the grounds, painting the trees in pale gold, but there was no sign of Amelia, no flash of copper hair, no slight figure hurrying toward the forest.I’d lost her.The woman who meant everything to me had run because she’d nearly killed me, and now she was gone.Behind me, footsteps pounded against marble, then gravel. I turned to find Dominic and Nico racing toward me, both of them flushed and breathing hard. Nico carried a thick robe, which he thrust toward me with a bow that managed to convey both respect and concern.“My King,” he said, his voice pitched low. “What’s happened?”I pulled the robe on with quick movements, grateful for the warmth despite the urgency of the situation. I glanced at the guards positioned at the bottom of the steps, their eyes car
One moment, Amelia was moving above me, her emerald eyes dark with need, her breath coming in desperate pants as she rode me toward climax. The next, she froze, her body suddenly rigid despite the pleasure that had been consuming her seconds before. Her eyes lost their focus, pupils dilating until only a thin ring of green remained, her lips parting on what might have been a gasp or a silent scream. I knew that look, had seen it before when Sera had invaded her mind. But this time, we were joined physically, my cock still buried inside her, my hands on her hips, our bond wide open from three days of desperate claiming.“Amelia?” I said, my voice sharper than I’d intended. “Amelia, what’s happening?”She didn’t answer, didn’t even seem to hear me. Her body remained perfectly still above mine, her inner walls clenching around me with rhythmic pressure that had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with whatever b
I woke to the grey light of the fourth morning of my heat, my body aching in places I hadn’t known could ache, my skin sensitised to the point that even the brush of the sheets against my thighs sent shivers of pleasure through my core. Sleep had come in fragments, brief respites between desperate couplings, between Lukas’s knot and my body’s demands for more. My throat felt raw, my hair a tangled mess across the pillow, yet beneath the exhaustion lurked that same, impossible hunger that had consumed me for three days straight. I needed him. Again. Still. Despite everything my body had already endured.My limbs felt leaden as I turned my head, copper hair sticking to my sweat-dampened neck. Lukas slept beside me, his profile etched in silver by the pre-dawn light. A thin sheen of sweat still glistened across his chest, my teeth marks visible on his shoulder, his collarbone, his lower lip. Three days of claiming and being claimed had left their marks on both
The moment I saw the dart protruding from Amelia's shoulder, something in me snapped. Red washed across my vision as Ares surged forward, a tidal wave of protective fury that threatened to drown my human consciousness. My claws extended without conscious thought, teeth sharpening behind lips pull
I gripped the balcony railing so tightly the stone might have cracked beneath my fingers. Nearly six hours of watching Amelia fight through the effects of wolfsbane had left me raw, every muscle in my body coiled with the need to intervene. When Lysander finally shifted, a cruel smile twisted my
I leaned back against Lukas's chest in the bath, water hot enough to steam but still not matching the fire burning through my veins. The wolfsbane felt like liquid metal beneath my skin, each heartbeat spreading the toxin despite the antidotes the doctor had administered. I tried to focus on the
I broke the kiss reluctantly, my body humming with a strange mix of pain and desire. "I love you too," I whispered against Lukas's lips, feeling his hands tighten protectively around my waist. The fight had left me battered but oddly exhilarated. Athena still prowled close to the surface, her cop







