Chapter 10

Aurelia POV

Liquid fire roared through my veins.

I woke not to silence, but to a deafening, violent surge of heat tearing through every nerve in my body. The infusion was stripping the lingering aconite from my tissues, but it wasn’t a gentle process—it was a purge. My lungs locked, refusing to drag air into my burning chest. My muscles coiled into agony, violent spasms locking my joints as my dormant wolf slammed desperately against the crumbling cage of poison inside me.

“Breathe, Aurelia.”

A low, steady voice cut through the roaring haze in my ears.

I gasped, my spine arching off the mattress as another wave of searing pain shredded my limbs. Sweat soaked my clothes, sticking my hair to my neck as cold tremors wrecked my body. My vision blurred into streaks of red and blinding gold. The clinical white of Rowan’s office was gone, replaced by dim, firelit timber walls.

I was in a bed. Soft blankets wrapped around my trembling frame, but I