“My daughter has expressed a desire to prove her commitment to the Order,” Thiago said. His hand rested on Mira’s shoulder. She didn’t flinch. “I thought it only fair to give her the opportunity.”
“Mira.” Her name left my mouth before strategy could stop it.
She didn’t respond or look at me. Her gaze fixed on a point past my shoulder, unfocused, and the absence of recognition in her expression was worse than hatred.
“You came for something in my compound.” Thiago tilted his head, studying me the way a man studies an insect he’s already decided to pin. “I assume you thought you’d sneak in at dawn and take it. Whatever it is you think I have.” His smile widened.“But I’m a generous man, Your Majesty. So I’ll give you something instead.”
He squeezed Mira’s shoulder.
“Go on, sweetheart. Show them what you’ve learned.”
“Mira,” I said again. Quieter. “Look at me.”
Nothing.
Thiago squeezed her shoulder. “Whenever you’re ready, sweetheart.”
She moved. Not toward us but through us. She stepped past Thiago’s line and into the clearing deliberately at a measured pace and my wolf screamed. The intensity was so much that it buckled my knees.
I put my arm out. Giselle had already started forward, claws out, reading the threat in the formation, and my hand caught her shoulder.
“No. Stay out of this.”
“She’s going to attack.”
“I said no.” I didn’t look away from Mira. “Nobody touches her.”
Giselle’s jaw tightened and she stepped back.
Mira’s hand moved to the dagger on her thigh. The crest glinted between her fingers, the blade I’d taught her to hold and she was using it against me. Against us.
“Get out of my way.” Her voice was flat, stripped of everything I’d fallen in love with. No sass, no warmth, no defiance. Just instruction.
“No,” Percy said from my right. Gentle. “Mira, whatever he told you...”
She attacked.
Percival first. The dagger slashed horizontal. He dodged, barely, his reflexes saving him from a cut that would have opened his arm. She pressed forward, relentless, and Solomon moved to intercept from the left.
It hit me before my ears registered it.
Not with my ears. Deeper. The wolf’s hearing, tuned to frequencies that human senses couldn’t register, picking up vibrations that bypassed the conscious mind.
Three heartbeats.
Aside from Mira’s. Not Mira’s. Hers was there too, fast and adrenaline-fueled, the rhythm I’d memorized. These were beneath hers. Smaller. Rapid.
Three distinct pulses nestled inside her body.
Three lives.Growing inside the woman who was currently trying to kill us.
My legs stopped working.
“Lucian.” Solomon’s voice interjected the static. He’d heard it too. His pale eyes were wide, the mask cracked open, silver irisesflooding with gold. Percival stumbled back from Mira’s next strike, not because he couldn’t block it but because his face had gone white.
They heard it. All three of us, frozen in the clearing while Mira fought with a precision that made the ground tilt beneath my feet.
Fucking hell.
