Chapter 15

Sophie

Something was wrong.

Not fear. Fear I knew. Fear had a shape, a source—Sebastiano’s message, the words gouged into the stone walls. This was different. This was coming from inside me.

The doorframe caught me before I hit the floor. Heat rolled through my body in a wave so sudden it stole my breath. I pressed my palm to my forehead. My skin was burning.

“What is wrong with me?”

I forced myself upright and moved through the palace. When I reached the foyer, every male wolf in the room went rigid at the same moment. Then the growling started—low, collective, animal. I stopped walking. My first thought was an attack. A mind link I had somehow missed. Then they began to scent the air, slow and deliberate, and one by one their heads turned toward me. Their eyes had gone completely black.

I took one step back.

They took one step forward.

“Well, well, well.” The voice came from somewhere in the group. “An unmarked female in heat.