THORN
Afew minutes earlier…
The valley still thrums with sound when I lower my head, my chest echoing with the last reverberations of my howl. For a heartbeat, she was with me — her voice twinning with mine, clear and fierce, as though no time had passed.
I’ll know Ember’s song in a thousand lifetimes. It slid through me like fire over ice, burning, reminding me why I’ve returned.
But then she falters.
My eyes snap to her in time to see it, a sharp shove at her side, her paws slipping in the grass. Her howl cracks, broken into a humiliating yelp.
My hands curl into fists, claws threatening to pierce my palms. Rage clawing at my throat. Who dares?
Ember doesn’t look at me. She drops her gaze to the grass, shoulders tight, shame radiating from every line of her body. As if she failed, instead of being sabotaged.
Lucia notices me watching. Of course she does. Her lips curling in a mocking smile, and she leans to whisper to the wolves beside her. Her laughter carries, sharp and cruel, and all of it directed at Ember.
I want to tear them apart. To rip their throats open one by one and leave them bleeding in the grass just as I did their mates.
But the trial is still sacred ground. As an Alpha’s mate, Ember will need to be able to handle the females, or they won’t respect her.
I can’t have that either. And so I stand there, the bitter taste of restraint thick on my tongue, chest heaving with the effort not to move.
Instead, I keep my eyes on Ember. On the girl who carries my heart and yet still hasn’t given me hers.
And I’m reminded that there are things I don’t know the answers to: Is she still untouched? Is she still mine?
Or had someone else broken her in the year I’ve been forced to wait? My jaw clenches until I taste blood. There will be other trials. Other chances to prove she belongs to me. Other chances to see if I’ve been holding onto a ghost — or if my mate still holds a candle for me.