Chapter 4 THE THING IN THE WINDOW
Glass exploded into the room.
I threw my arms up to shield my face as shards rained down around me. Cold night air rushed in, carrying the scent of something wrong. Something rotten beneath the surface.
The creature climbed through the broken window with movements that were too fast. Too fluid. Like its bones didn't work the way bones should.
It looked almost human. Almost.
But its skin was gray and stretched too tight over sharp bones. Its eyes were completely black. No whites. No pupils. Just endless darkness that seemed to swallow the firelight.
And its smile... too many teeth crammed into a mouth that stretched wider than any mouth should.
"Little Tribrid," it hissed. The voice scraped like nails on stone. "We've been looking for you for so long."
I backed away until my spine hit the wall. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Liar." It took a step toward me. Then another. "We can smell it on you. The three bloods. The forbidden mixing." It inhaled deeply and shuddered with something like pleasure. "So pure. So untouched. You don't even know what you are yet, do you?"
My hand found the pendant still clutched in my fingers. The metal had grown warm against my palm.
"Stay away from me."
The creature laughed. It was an awful sound.
"The masters want you alive," it said. "But they didn't say anything about unharmed."
It lunged.
I screamed and threw myself to the side. The creature's claws raked across the wall where my head had been, leaving deep gouges in the stone.
I scrambled toward the door but it was faster. So much faster. It grabbed my ankle and yanked me backward. My chin hit the floor and I tasted blood.
"Such pretty screams," it whispered above me. "The masters will enjoy breaking you."
Something inside me snapped.
Not broke. Snapped. Like a chain being pulled too tight finally giving way.
Heat flooded my body. Not the gentle warmth I had felt when Ronan touched me. This was fire. Pure fire racing through my veins and burning everything in its path.
My vision went gold.
The creature released me suddenly and stumbled backward. Its black eyes widened.
"Impossible," it breathed. "You can't... you shouldn't be able to..."
I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't understand what was happening. But when I opened my mouth, a sound came out that I had never made before.
A growl.
Deep and rumbling and coming from somewhere primal inside me.
The creature hissed and lunged again.
And then the door exploded inward.
Ronan burst into the room in full wolf form.
I had never seen a shifted wolf up close. The servants in the old pack shifted away from us. We were not worthy of witnessing their wolves.
But Ronan...
He was massive. Bigger than any wolf should be. His fur was dark gray, almost black, and his eyes blazed amber with so much power that the air around him seemed to vibrate.
He hit the creature mid-leap and they crashed through the remaining window frame into the night outside.
I lay on the floor, gasping for breath. The fire inside me was fading but my body felt strange. Different. Like something had shifted beneath my skin and hadn't quite settled back into place.
Sounds of fighting came from outside. Snarls. Screams. The wet sound of flesh tearing.
Then silence.
I pushed myself up slowly. My arms were shaking. My legs felt like water.
The window was a gaping hole now. Cold wind poured through it, making the fire in the hearth flicker wildly.
A shadow appeared in the opening.
I tensed. Ready to run. Ready to fight. Ready for anything.
Ronan climbed back through. Human again. Shirtless and covered in dark blood that wasn't his own.
His amber eyes found me immediately and something in them changed. Softened.
"Are you hurt?" His voice was rough. Deeper than before.
"I don't... I don't think so."
He crossed the room in three strides and dropped to his knees in front of me. His hands cupped my face, tilting it toward the firelight. His touch was gentle despite the violence I had just witnessed him commit.
"Your eyes," he murmured. "They changed again."
"I felt it." I swallowed hard. "Something... something happened inside me. When it grabbed me. I felt this heat and then..."
"Your wolf," he said quietly. "It's waking up."
I shook my head. "I don't have a wolf. I'm Hollow."
"You were never Hollow." His thumb brushed across my cheekbone. "You were bound. Locked. Someone put chains on whatever is inside you and those chains are starting to break."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I can feel it." His jaw tightened. "Through the bond."
The word hung between us.
"What bond?" I whispered.
He was quiet for a long moment. His hands were still on my face. His amber eyes searched mine like he was looking for permission.
"When an Alpha meets his true mate," he said slowly, "there is a recognition. A pull. The wolf knows before the man does." He took a shaky breath. "My wolf recognized you the moment I saw you through that kitchen door."
My heart stopped.
"Mate?"
"I know how it sounds. I know you don't know me. I know this is..." He closed his eyes briefly. "I've been fighting it since I first caught your scent. Telling myself it was impossible. That you were Hollow. That there must be some mistake."
"And now?"
He opened his eyes. The gold was brighter than ever.
"Now I know there's no mistake." His voice dropped to something raw. Something vulnerable. "You're mine, Seraphina. You've always been mine. I just didn't know I was looking for you."
Before I could respond, shouts erupted from somewhere in the compound.
Ronan's head snapped toward the door. The vulnerability vanished. The Alpha returned.
"Stay here," he commanded.
"What's happening?"
He didn't answer. He was already moving toward the door.
But before he reached it, the Beta appeared in the doorway. His face was pale as death.
"Alpha." His voice cracked. "You need to see this. Now."
"The wolves at the border?"
"They're dead." The Beta swallowed hard. "All of them. Something killed them. Something..."
"Something what?"
The Beta looked past Ronan to me. And in his eyes I saw genuine terror.
"Something that left a message," he whispered. "Written in their blood."
Ronan went still. "What message?"
The Beta's next words turned my blood to ice.
"It says... 'The Tribrid belongs to the Dragon King. Return what is ours or Thornmere burns.'"
Dragon King.
Dragons were supposed
to be extinct.
But the pendant against my chest had never felt heavier.
Fang. Claw. Wing.
And somewhere out there, something with wings was coming for me.
