The wolf didn't die easy.
Lucan stood over the carcass, not angry, not confused, just still. The trees around him were broken in a tight circle, like something had crashed down hard. Pine needles covered blood. The air was sharp with copper and sweat.
The body wasn't fresh, but it hadn't decayed.
He crouched beside it, examining the gashes, too clean for animal attacks. It had been mauled by its own. Torn down by a pack, then left out in the open.
Not hidden. Displayed.
A message.
Lucan rose slowly, The trees around him shifted. He didn't look up.
"Watching from the dark isn't impressive," he said.
Two shadows moved near the tree line. Werewolves, one large, one lean. Both holding human shape but just barely. Their eyes glowed yellow in the low light.
Lucan turned to face them. Calm. Focused.
The bigger one growled.
The smaller wolf tensed. "You don't belong here. Not anymore."
Lucan didn't answer, instead he moved.
The bigger wolf reached for a blade, but didn't finish the motion.
Lucan crushed his windpipe before he could scream. He dropped the body and looked to the second one.
"You're going to run. And if you stop running, you won't walk again."
The second wolf didn't speak. Just turned and vanished into the woods. Lucan stood alone again, blood on his sleeve, wind stirring the trees like breath.
'Animals'
-----
The hotel was quiet.
Not the kind that came with high-end security and insulation, but the kind that came from ownership. Sophie-Anne had cleared the floor. No guards. No staff. Just a single door unlocked, the hallway dim and unscented.
Lucan didn't knock.
He stepped in, slow, deliberate. The suite was open with glass walls, old furniture, thick curtains drawn. Candles burned low but not for ritual. Just enough to keep the dark warm.
Sophie-Anne sat on the edge of the bed, robe wrapped loose around her frame, hair unbound. Her posture was relaxed, but her eyes were sharp.
"You didn't answer," she said.
Lucan stood near the window, hands at his sides.
"You didn't ask a question."
Sophie-Anne tilted her head.
"No guards. No bait. No blood wine. I thought I deserved credit for restraint."
Lucan didn't move.
"You called me here. Why?"
Sophie-Anne rose, walked past him to the minibar, poured nothing, then turned back.
"You've been alive longer than some kingdoms. You don't take orders. You barely take conversation. And yet you're still here."
Lucan watched her.
"You're not afraid of me."
"Wrong," she said. "I'm terrified. But I respect the things that scare me."
She stepped closer, not flirtatious. Intentional.
"When I first heard your name years ago, I thought it was just a myth. Godric's silent brother. The shadow behind the strength. The thing that survived when the world didn't want it to."
Lucan didn't speak.
Sophie-Anne reached up, fingers grazing her collarbone, like grounding herself.
"I wanted to meet you before I died."
Lucan frowned.
"You think that's coming soon?"
She shook her head.
"I think the world is shifting. And the things we've built... they won't hold. Not when the ground keeps moving."
Lucan stepped forward once.
"Then why hold on?"
She met his eyes. "Because I've never seen anything worth letting go for."
They stood in silence.
No challenge. No seduction.
Just the space between two people who should never have shared the same room.
And yet here they were.
-----
Amanda didn't scream. She couldn't. Her throat was locked, her chest hollow. Her hands scraped across the floor, trying to anchor herself to something real.
But the room was gone. The house was gone. Only pressure remained. It pressed against her spine, against the backs of her eyes, cold and pulsing like blood that had forgotten how to flow.
Lucan was in the next room when it started.
He felt it.
Not through the tether, but through the air itself, turning wrong.
He moved fast and by the time he reached her, Amanda was suspended. Not floating. Held.
Like something had wrapped around her nerves from the inside and refused to let go. Her eyes were open, but empty. Her mouth moved.
No sound came out.
Until one word did.
"Yours."
Not her voice, but the entity's.
Lucan crossed the space and grabbed her by the shoulders, grounding her in his touch.
His voice was low but sharp.
"Let go of her."
Nothing changed. He reached deeper, not through the tether, but through his power, the thread of death that ran through him like frozen fire. He pressed that force into her not to hurt, but to sever.
Amanda gasped and the hold broke. She collapsed forward into his arms, coughing, shaking, eyes wide and wet.
Lucan didn't speak.
Amanda looked up at him, voice hoarse.
"I saw it. I felt it. Not the thing inside Caelis. The thing behind it."
Lucan's expression didn't change, but the room darkened anyway.
She wasn't finished.
"It knew me. But not because of me."
Lucan leaned closer.
Amanda swallowed.
"It knew me because of you."