Chapter 9: Claws of Jealousy

The solar garden was unusually quiet.

Katherine knelt beside a winter bloom, fingertips brushing snow-dusted petals. “Strange,” she murmured. “No guards. No wind. No birds.”

She stood slowly.

Too late.

A cloth clamped over her mouth. The sharp scent of silverroot burned her nose. Pain lanced through her skull.

---

She woke in darkness.

Cold stone. Chains. Dim torchlight flickering against iron bars.

Her wrists were bound—silver-laced cuffs biting into skin. Her wolf was... silent.

A figure stepped from the shadows.

Arius Whitefang.

Damian’s cousin. Charismatic. Ambitious. Dangerous.

“Well,” he drawled, crouching before her. “The infamous sun-wolf awakens.”

Katherine stared at him coldly. “Didn’t realize you were this desperate.”

He smiled. “I prefer the term *opportunistic*.”

“Where are we?”

“The old raven tunnels, beneath the eastern ridge. Not on Whitefang land. Not on any land, technically.”

“You’re insane.”