Karik's lips curled back in a snarl. His eyes flicked to me, then back to Daska, and something cruel and satisfied settled into his expression. He barked something short and sharp, and the warriors around us shifted, not away, butin. Closing the space. Forming a ring.
"What's happening?" I whispered, though I already knew. My hands were shaking. "Daska—"
He didn't look at me. His gaze was locked on Karik.
"Daska." I grabbed his arm, tried to pull him back, but it was like trying to move stone. "Don't. Please don't—"
He turned and looked down at me. The bond flared between us, warm and steady andcertain, and I felt the shape of his resolve like a weight settling into my chest. He was going to do this. He was going to fight three wolves, one of them Karik, and he was going to do it for me.
He's going to die.
The thought hit me so hard I couldn't breathe. My knees tried to buckle. I grabbed at his tunic, his shoulder, anything to keep him here, to stop this, but he caught my wrist gently and pulled my hand to his chest. Over his heart.
It beat steady and slow beneath my palm as he bent down and pressed his forehead to mine. Just for a moment. Just long enough for me to feel the warmth of his skin, the faint rasp of his breath, the way his fingers tightened around my wrist like he was anchoring himself to me. Then he let go.
"No—" I lunged forward, but someone caught me from behind. Dev’s arms locked around my waist, and I twisted hard, trying to break free. "Let me go—let me go—"
"Ellie, stop." Megan's voice, sharp and close. Her hand on my shoulder. "You can't."
"He's going to die!" My voice broke on the words, ragged and desperate. "They're going to kill him—"
"Then you need towatch." Megan's grip tightened. "You need to see what he's willing to do for you, because he’s going to do it anyway and he needs to focus. Ellie!"
I didn't want to see. I didn't want to watch him get torn apart because of me, because I was human and couldn't defend myself and needed someone else to bleed for me. But Dev's arms didn't loosen, and Megan was right, and the warriors kept closing in until there was nowhere left to run.
Daska stepped into the centre of the ring.
He was still human. He'd removed his tunic, even though I knew he’d shift to fight. I looked at him, remembering only the night before, before I’d told him about me. Remembering the way he’d held me, the way my lips had moved over the hard planes of his chest and lower. The way he’d called out my name at the end. I wanted to scream at him to stop, to run, to do anything but stand there and wait for them to come at him.
Karik shifted first.
The transformation was fast and brutal, bones cracking, fur rippling across skin, claws tearing through the earth as he dropped to all fours. He was bigger than I remembered, all muscle and teeth and cold rage.
Two more wolves stepped into the ring beside him, their eyes locked on Daska like he was prey.
My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. The bond thrummed between us, tight and sharp andwrong, like a string pulled too taut. I could feel his heartbeat in my chest, steady and strong, and I didn't know if that made it better or worse.
Don't die. Please don't die.
Daska shifted.
The sound of it was different, deeper, heavier, the crack of bone and the scrape of claws louder than the wolves'. His body expanded, thickened, fur the colour of dark earth spreading across his shoulders and arms as he dropped forward onto four massive paws. He was enormous, bigger than Karik, bigger than the other wolves but not invincible. Not against three of them.
The wolves circled him slowly, testing, and I couldn't breathe. My ribs felt too tight, my chest too small, and the bond was screaming at me to move, to do something, to get between them and him and make them stop.
Dev's arms tightened around me. "Don't."
I wasn't going to listen. I was going to rip free and throw myself into that ring and—
The first wolf lunged.
Fast. Too fast. It came in low, snapping at Daska's flank, and he twisted to meet it, but the second wolf was already there, teeth sinking into his shoulder. He roared and I felt it echo through the bond like a punch to the gut.
Sharp. Hot. Burning.
I gasped, my hand flying to my shoulder, and the pain wasthere, not mine, but his, bleeding through the bond until Icouldn't tell where he ended and I began. My knees buckled, and Dev caught me, his voice sharp in my ear.
"Ellie, breathe..."
