KARL’S POV

I wake before dawn. Rey is still asleep beside me, her body curled inward as if even rest is something she guards carefully.

Her hair spills across my chest, pale gold against my skin, and for a moment, just a moment, I forget everything else.

The pack.

Politics.

Rieka.

I trace a finger down Rey’s spine slowly, possessively. She's mine.

The thought settles deeper than instinct. It feels… inevitable. I have marked warriors before. Temporary claims, battle bonds, but this is different. This is not strategy or dominance.

This is hunger.

“She’s dangerous,” the elders warned.

They were right. But not in the way they think. Rey opens...