The Werewolf's Bride
The moon had bled into a thin crescent by the time Elara returned to the manor, her boots leaving bloody footprints across the stone threshold. The chase through the forest had been brutal, branches whipping her face, lungs burning, hybrid senses screaming every direction the cloaked figure turned. She had lost them at the river’s edge, the water swallowing scent and sound like a grave. But the cloak she now clutched in her fist, torn from a low branch during the pursuit, was unmistakable; Blackthorn black, edged with the subtle silver embroidery reserved for inner-circle betas.