The cloak slipped from my shoulders.

And I didn’t stop.

Kael stood frozen, silent, ashamed.

“You lied,” I said, my voice flat. “Not just to me. To the gods. To the pack. To yourself.”

He stepped forward. “Ardyn, I was trying to protect you.”

“By selling my blood to the Highblood Council?”

The air between us cracked, not with fire or with death.

Lira held out the scroll again. They wanted the Omega Vessel. Her blood holds the last uncorrupted divine strain.

“You were ...