Page 104 of The Cursed Wolf King

Anchored to Sable?The thought was ridiculous. My breath caught as an instinct rose in my chest.

She can’t be Crux. No way. She can’t.

Or could she?

Before I could decipher the connection, she turned and melted back into the trees, leaving me standing there with more questions than answers. My wolf was torn between pursuing her and staying.

A low growl from nearby shattered my focus, yanking me back into the moment. Logan. He needed me. I turned toward him, bracing myself for what was to come.

The Heraclid wolves around us shifted uneasily, their postures stiff and wary.There’s a current running between them, I thought, and sought my wolf to ask what it was.

I heard her reply:Listen to them.

Listen to them.

I let the bond with Logan soften so I could tap into the sounds and vibrations around me. As I inhaled, the sounds of the clearing being prepared faded away. What took its place came first as a trickle.

Then the deluge came.

I gasped, the force of every shifter’s condition hitting me again and again, and I called upon my wolf to keep me upright.

Little by little, she said.Listen to them, one at a time.

She guided me, calmed my speeding heart, and I couldfeel it more clearly than ever—the fractures splintering through the pack.

Loyalty was a fragile thing here, and it was breaking at the seams. I searched the wolves around me; some clung to Grayson’s promises, their snarls echoing his confidence. Other emotions reached me as an undercurrent, as they shifted their weight from side to side, searching for an exit from the inevitable chaos.

The overwhelming majority of emotions came to me only as a quiet hum of tense anticipation. They were the ones not fixated on Grayson, but on Logan.

They wanted change. They wantedfreedom.

I staggered back, the weight of their hope pressing down on me like a physical force. This wasn’t only about Logan and Grayson. It was aboutthem.

Anwen caught my arm, steadying me. “Eve,” she whispered. “What do you feel?”

“Everything,” I breathed. “They’re scared, divided… but some of them?—”

“They’re waiting,” she finished for me, her voice solemn, “for someone to trulyleadthem.”

I held my breath, my heart pounding. The fight was coming, and the outcome would decide everything—for him, for me, and for the wolves watching with their future on the line.

Logan was risking it all.

Grayson disrobed, a young female taking his clothes from him. Despite his age, he was in incredible condition. Muscles rippled down his body and he stretched as though this was barely more than an annoyance.

“The time has come, reckless and wretched alpha ofOrion,” Grayson announced over the growing but silent crowd. “I shall take pleasure in this kill, and will happily integrate the Orion females into Heraclid. It will do our bloodlines good to mix it up. As for the men… We’ll see if they fall in line.”

He was saying it to rile Logan, taunt him into making mistakes. And it was working. Logan’s heartbeat accelerated.

My fists clenched at my sides, my wolf snapping and snarling inside me.Calm, my love,I sent to him, and his shoulders relaxed. It was a small thing, but I hoped it would help.

Logan spoke through clenched teeth. “Say goodbye, Grayson. Andshift.”

The Heraclid wolves bristled at Logan’s alpha command toward another alpha, a wave of unease spreading through them.

Grayson growled, and I was infused with pride for the authority Logan commanded, even in his state, in enemy lands, and on the verge of a fight that would decideeverything.

The moment Grayson shifted, the air seemed to surge. His shift was shocking, as if he relished in his bones breaking and his flesh tearing. His wolf was monstrous—huge, broad-shouldered, with coarse, bristling fur the color of storm clouds. His snarl was low and guttural, a sound that reverberated through my chest like a warning bell.

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