A low, guttural growl ripped through the room, vibrating through my bones even as darkness tried to pull me under.
I wasn’t fully conscious, but I could still feel the shift in the air. The tension thickened, the atmosphere charged with something raw and dangerous. Even in my half-dazed state, I knew, Kael was here.
The woman’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and defensive. “She needed to learn her place. You can’t allow a mere human to—”
A blur of movement. A choked gasp.
Then a crash.
The vibrations of her body slamming into the wall rattled through me, but I was too weak to react. My body remained limp, my breath shallow.
Then warmth. Strong arms, solid, steady, slipped around me. The scent of cedarwood and something primal filled my senses, a familiar presence cutting through t
