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Dominic

Elaine slept for nearly twenty hours.

Liana and I took turns sitting by her side in the cabin we had moved her to—far from the others, far from the judging eyes of the older wolves who still didn't understand what she meant to me. What she was to this pack now.

She murmured in her sleep, always my name. Sometimes she cried out. Once, she whispered something about the cold, and I wrapped her in every blanket I could find. Watching her like that—so small, so quiet—it broke something in me I didn't know I still had.

I'd never felt powerless before.

Not until now.

"She's healing," Liana said gently as she entered with fresh bandages and a mug of something herbal. "The poison's nearly gone. Her wolf will wake."

I nodded. "But when she does... what then?"

"She'll remember what it felt like. To shift. To burn." Liana met my gaze. "But she'll also remember who carried her through it."

I stared at Elaine's sleeping form. The scar I gave her still marked her shoulder, but it looked different now—less like a wound, more like a sigil. A bond. My mark.

"Dominic," Liana said, lowering her voice, "I found something in her belongings."

I tensed. "What?"

She handed me a small piece of paper. A note, folded crisply. I recognized the handwriting instantly.

It was Nick's.

I opened it.

She's not safe with you. You're not what she needs. She'll never belong in your world, Dominic. But she still belongs in mine. I'm taking her back.

My vision blurred. The edges of the note crumpled in my grip.

"He was in her house," I growled.

Liana nodded grimly. "I picked up his scent. Mixed with silver."

That was all the confirmation I needed. I stood, my bones humming with fury, and looked down at Elaine. I didn't want to leave her, but I couldn't let this go.

"I'll find him," I said.

"Be careful," Liana warned. "He's not working alone."

I paused at the door, one final glance back at the girl who changed everything. "I've let him hurt her enough. Never again." As I shifted into my wolf form and took off into the forest, the wind at my back and vengeance burning in my chest, only one thought stayed with me:

No one takes her from me and lives.