Chapter 13: The Calm Before the Storm

The aftermath of the clearing was a silent, seismic shift. The vampires who had witnessed the taboo act of a Duke drinking directly from a Lupine—and that Lupine not only allowing it but commandingit—fled into the night, their loyalty to Lilian shattered by the raw, terrifying power of what they had seen. We were left alone in the moonlit clearing, the only sounds our ragged breathing and the rustle of leaves in the wind. Caius’s wound had closed, the magical poison purged by the potent...