Accusation.

"There's blood on the Luna's head!" the guard shouts, voice sharp and tight with alarm. "What did you do?!"

Before I can even think of what to say or how to explain what happened, the door bursts open so hard the hinges rattle.

My heart stutters, and a cold pressure grips my chest, leaving me tense and bracing for the worst.

My wolf shifts restlessly inside me, on edge, urging me to run, to move, to escape before it is too late.

But I stay rooted in place, unable to follow that instinct. My mind feels blank and heavy, as if weighed down by a stone.

Alpha Eryx storms into the room, his steps pounding across the floor.

His entire posture radiates panic, a raw, jagged energy I have never seen from him before.

His usually controlled presence is shattered, and it jolts something uneasy deep in my gut.

"Morgana?" he calls, voice rough, cracks of worry breaking through every syllable.

He moves straight to her, barely seeming to see me at all. There's a tremor in his arms as he reaches for her, something desperate in the way he steadies her. "What are you waiting for, standing there like statues?!" he snaps at the guards, voice rising and spilling over. "Call the doctor!"

The guards scramble away, the door swinging behind them. My wolf keeps urging, run, a quiet growl deep in my mind, but my legs refuse to move. I feel rooted to the floor, hands clammy, breathing thin.

Morgana stirs, fingers lifting shakily to her head, pressing against the smear of blood there.

Her face twists, eyes squeezing shut as pain seizes her. When she blinks them open again, her gaze drifts slowly across the room, searching, until it lands on me.

That single second makes my stomach fold in on itself. My knees nearly buckle. A sharp sting of fear shoots through me, a flush of heat in my face as if I might collapse or even wet myself right there.

But she winces again, lids falling closed, and sags against Alpha Eryx's arms. He gathers her closer, voice dropping low, calming, trying to steady her. "It's okay, it's okay," he murmurs, breath shaky. "The doctor is coming right now, just hold on."

Morgana's lips part, voice fragile, words floating out with a pained breath. "She hit me on the wall hard," she says, her tone cracking like something worn thin.

Alpha Eryx freezes, eyes locking on me, and for a moment there is pure disbelief, like he cannot believe what he just heard.

Then something shifts behind his gaze, tightening, breaking, and the disbelief curdles into a hard, blistering rage.

"She what?!" he roars, the word bursting out of him, starting in a low growl and ending in a sharp, shaking bark that rattles straight through my bones.

I feel the tremor inside me, an echo of his rage, making my shoulders jerk visibly. The corners of my vision blur, and I taste the sting of fear on my tongue.

"She slammed me on the wall, repeatedly," Morgana breathes out, voice trembling, distant. "I don't know if she has demons or what? I came here to tell her I wasn't feeling so well, and I needed a..."

"It's enough..." Alpha Eryx cuts in, voice raw but trying to soothe her, lifting a hand to calm the words from her lips. "You don't have to say much."

What the...?! I… I slammed her against the wall several times?! The words hit me like a slap. Is she serious? Why is she even lying about something like that?!

My wolf claws at the accusation, snarling just beneath my skin.

As the doctor appears in the doorway, Alpha Eryx carefully shifts Morgana toward him, his hands gentle but urgent, as if afraid she might break apart.

He steps back only a fraction, but the tension clings to him, drawn taut through every muscle in his arms.

He watches the doctor begin to tend to Morgana, then turns to me with an expression so cold it sears right through my skin.

Before I can even brace myself, he lunges, grabbing my wrist in a grip that feels like iron clamped around my bones.

I barely keep from crying out, swallowing hard against the wave of panic clawing at my throat.

My wolf snarls inside, uneasy, restless, but there is no place for me to run. My feet feel bolted to the floor.

My breathing turns shallow, air catching on every inhale, the walls of the room suddenly pressing in around me.

He pulls me outside with a rough, jolting force, his grip iron around my wrist before he lets go of me with a force that make my feet lose their place beneath me.

I stagger, shoulders crashing against the stone wall, the shock of it sending a sting through my ribs.

The world tips sideways for a moment, and I have to blink hard to steady my vision.

"Did you just try to kill my child?!" he roars, the words tearing through the air like claws.

The accusation slams into me so violently it feels as though all the breath is punched from my lungs.

My thoughts splinter, scattered and useless, panic shooting through my chest until I can barely stand.

A cold rush floods my limbs, making me shake so badly I feel I might actually collapse, darkness brushing at the edges of my sight.

"I didn't mean t..." I manage to stammer, my voice thin and choked.

"Shut your mouth!" he bellows, louder this time, fury dripping from every syllable, crackling around me like lightning. "You are so lucky that I forbid killing and violence toward women in this pack, because I would have ripped your throat off already!"

My heart lurches so hard it feels like it might burst from my chest, a wild hammering that drowns out every other sound.

My wolf shifts inside me, tense and wary, but too terrified to urge me to run.

"You dare touch your Luna," he seethes, voice trembling with the force of the rage pulsing through him, "the Luna I trusted you to protect- her, and my pup!"

I can barely hold his gaze, the weight of it so crushing that my knees threaten to give. But beneath the fury, I catch something like a raw, pleading panic, as though if he lost that child, it would end him completely.

It burrows into me, clawing at my stomach, making me feel sick.

Without another word to me, he snaps toward the guards, his shoulders stiff, the air around him charged and dangerous.

"Escort her to the pack prison!" he orders, each word falling like a death sentence. "She can live to pay for what she just did there all her life!"

A numb chill spreads through me at those words, wrapping around my ribs until I can barely breathe.

My skin prickles, dread sinking its teeth in, the thought of being locked away forever swallowing me whole.

But then another voice, sharp and familiar, slices through the tension.

"She's not going to be taken anywhere, brother," it says, calm but edged with something far more dangerous.

Theo.

Instead of relief, panic grips me even harder, squeezing like a cruel fist around my ribs, because I can tell that Theo is not going to let Alpha Eryx punish me.

And maybe he is not going to keep quiet about our secret relationship this time either.