CLAIMED BY THE FOUR ALPHA BROTHERS
"Why isn't he waking up?"
Soren didn't answer right away, his attention fixed on something else entirely, his fingers pulling back the collar of Knox's shirt where the creature's touch had landed.
A mark had bloomed there, silver veins spidering out from a central point just below his collarbone, faint and glowing softly even now, unmistakable in its pattern.
"Show me yours," Soren said suddenly, looking up at me, urgency sharpening his voice. "Your shoulder. Now, Calla."
I pulled my collar aside with trembling hands, revealing the scar that had marked me since the forest, silver veins radiating outward in the same pattern now visible on Knox's chest, down to the smallest branching line.