(Catherine POV)
The scream that brought me running from the stables wasn't human terror this time—it was Mary, her voice pitched in the register of someone who'd seen too much blood and wasn't equipped to process the medical crisis that had just been carried through the castle doors.
I found them in the great hall, where morning light streaming through tall windows illuminated a scene that made my stomach lurch despite everything I'd witnessed during the night's assault. Lucas hung between two pack members, his normally composed face gray with pain and blood loss, dark stains spreading across a shirt that had been white before violence had redefined the evening's priorities.
The gash along his ribs was visible through torn fabric—deep enough to reveal muscle beneath, long enough to sugg
