It happened that night.I couldn't sleep. This had become routine — my human mind, too wired for stillness, refusing to surrender to the deep, instinctive Lycan sleep this body craved. I lay in the massive bed, staring at the canopy above, running tomorrow's strategy through my head, cataloguing alliances and vulnerabilities and the precise angle from which to approach Elder Maren again, when I felt it.

A warmth, starting at the center of my chest, just beneath my sternum. Not the warmth of ...