The night dragged for too long. I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning. My body ached as if I had run miles through the forest, barefoot and hunted. I watched the ceiling, staring admirably at it. It was carved with faint patterns of wolves and moons, but my mind wouldn't rest long enough to notice them properly. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw everything that had played out in that secret basement.
I turned on the bed again, curling into myself. The mark Alpha Dawn had left in me pulsed softly, as if it had a heartbeat of its own.
I pressed my palm against my heart, whispering to no one in particular, "Please stop."
It didn't.
The memory came back in pieces. From the moment Alpha Dawn marked me without my knowledge to the moment I unlocked a power in me in that basement. Then the voice—the one that called herself Freya. My wolf.
My wolf.
