{Dominic}I spat blood onto the cracked marble floor and swayed, barely catching myself against what was left of the villa’s mangled archway. My chest felt like it had caved in, and my ribs were screaming with every breath, but I stayed standing… barely. My wolf growled weakly inside me, licking his wounds. He was hurting, but alive. Which was more than I could say for my pride.Across the room, Corvin stoodwith his hands clasped behind his back and not a damn scratch on him. The smell of betrayal clung to him like his stupid, unwrinkled robe.And then there was Varen, leaning on a fractured pillar with all the lazy arrogance of a wolf who’d already won the war. “Go on,” I rasped, glaring at both of them. “How long have you been planning this little parade?”Corvin gave a low chuckle and shook his head, his silver hair gleaming in the firelight. “Long enough to know you were never meant to lead. You were always sentimental, Dominic. Soft in all the wrong places.”“Could’ve fooled me
{Dominic}I didn’t know whether it was the blood in my ears or the way the light kept strobing through the cracks in the ceiling, but the world felt like it was tilting.Smoke curled through the shattered rafters of the Elder’s Villa, and the taste of magic clung to my tongue, but somewhere beneath it, I caught the scent again.My claws were still dug into the marble on either side of her head, my body half-shifted and trembling, but not from exhaustion, oh no. From something so much deeper that my wolf couldn’t name it, but it was howling for it all the same.I stared down at Lyra and watched as her chest rose and fell beneath me. She looked like a goddess sculpted from fury and gold, magic simmering under her skin like a volcano beneath a silk sheet.She was my mate… the pieces snapped together almost immediately, it all made sense now. Every time I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, every time I let her get under my skin. Even when she lied, even when she ran, I still wanted her.
{Dominic}I ran like the ground behind me was about to explode. Isaac’s voice kept echoing in my head, asking for his sister.And then the look on his face when I told him; the way his eyes dulled like someone had reached in and turned out the lights. I hated that I had to tell a boy who’d already lost too much that his sister was now possessed by the same witch who had placed the curse on Odessa.Before I left, I made him promise that he’d stay put in the bunker, no matter what. His sister had sacrificed herself so mine could be saved, I had to bring her back.By the time I made it back to the place where Alissa was, my lungs were seizing, and my legs felt like I’d sprinted through hell. The scent of ash and crushed greenery still clung to the air, thick enough to sting my nose. The trees were snapped at odd angles, as if someone had torn through them with reckless anger.“Mace!” I shouted, eyes scanning the area.She groaned from a crater in the ground, her leg bruised badly. Felix
{Dominic}The thing wearing Lyra’s body smiled. Her eyes gleamed with a strange darkness, and the smile sent a chill down my spine.“I must admit,” Alissa purred, stretching out her arms and flexing Lyra’s fingers like she’d just slipped into a silk robe. “I didn’t expect this. I thought I’d be bound to Odessa forever… but this?” Her eyes flicked down at her borrowed form. “This is divine.”My nails dug into my palms until I felt skin tear. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, but that was mostly because my heart was still catching up to what I’d just seen. She tilted her head at me with a grin that didn’t belong on Lyra’s lips. “And all because your precious little mate gave herself up like a gift-wrapped sacrifice. How touching.”I saw red, but I held myself back.I had just gotten her back. We hadn't even had the chance to talk about what had happened and now she was gone… for good this time.I took a step forward, my claws twitching at my sides. “Give her back.”Alissa laughed. “Oh,
{Dominic}If there had only been one, I might’ve stood a chance. But there were two of them.Massive, corrupted beasts, thick with muscle and crawling with dark tendrils that twitched like they were alive. I crouched low, claws digging into the earth, lungs burning as the last of my adrenaline tried to carry me through. But I was already winded, bleeding, and still shaking off Varen’s last dirty trick.The first creature lunged.I didn’t hesitate. I let go of the pain, the exhaustion, the fact that my ribs felt like crushed porcelain. My body expanded in a crackling burst of heat and fur, bones shifting until my paws hit the ground. My wolf took over with a snarl, and then it was chaos.Teeth snapped inches from my throat. I twisted, barreled into the side of the beast, using its momentum to flip it. The second one slammed into me before I could recover, claws raking across my flank. Pain exploded through my side, but I didn’t stop. I sank my teeth into its shoulder and yanked, teari
{Lyra}Dahlia’s blood was warm against my thighs.It soaked into the knees of my jeans, sticky and terrifyingly red, and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking as I pressed them against the open wound in her side.“Come on, come on,” I whispered, the words spilling past my lips as if saying them faster would help. “Don’t you dare die on me.”Her lashes fluttered, and a pained moan slipped out, but she didn’t respond.I drew in a shaky breath and summoned every flicker of energy I had left. Heat surged from my chest, traveling down my arms as I pressed my glowing palms to her wound. The golden light flickered faintly, then fizzled I gritted my teeth and pushed harder, whispering the healing chant and pouring everything I had into her, “Virende lumara… alen theris.”The light shone brighter this time, but still, nothing happened. It wasn’t enough.I tried again, channeling what little energy I had left. “Please, please…”The magic sputtered out like a dying candle, and Dahlia coughed, h