The council chamber was suffocating. The elders had been circling the same arguments for hours, their voices sharp, their words laced with fear. Bella sat rigid in her chair, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles burned. Alfred’s presence beside her was steady, but his jaw was locked, his wolf snarling beneath his skin.

It was the same refrain: She is not wolf. She is not safe.

Bella tried to hold her head high, but she felt the walls closing in. Every whisper of unnatural carved deeper ...