MACE

Jaynayah’s fear reached me before anyone’s voice did.

It struck through the bond like a hand closing around my throat—sharp, bright, and stunned. Not the old terror that used to tear through her in the dark. This was different. Quieter. Deeper.

I had been crossing the training yard, half-listening while Jackie threatened to make two young warriors spar blindfolded because they were “too proud to use their eyes properly,” when the bond shifted.

I stopped dead.

Jackie’s head snapped toward me. “Alpha?”

I was already moving.

By the time I reached the infirmary, every instinct I owned had turned savage.

Jaynayah sat on the edge of a bed with...