[Alaric]

The party was finally winding down. An entire hour had passed since my speech, and the energy, once a crushing wave of communal joy, was now a low, contented thrum.

My pack and the allied guests—vampires, shifters, wolves—had dispersed, following their animalistic desires: feeding on the wine-mixed blood, indulging in the human delicacies.

I was only slightly buzzed from the blood-mixed wine, but the lingering effects of the night—the emotional high Lana gave me, the ...