CLAUDE
IT WAS TIME.
My stomach churned, tightened, and I had to swallow the bile rising from the pit of my stomach.
A week. That’s all it took for them to prepare for this damned mating ceremony. Held right under the full moon, at the heart of the pack, like some kind of joke.
The whole pack was buzzing, full of excitement, but for me? This felt like my funeral.
“I can smell your nervousness, Claude,” my father’s voice broke through the fog of my thoughts and I flinched, but I didn’t bother to glance at him. I just kept watching the world blur past me.
The car screeched to a stop in front of the packhouse. I didn’t waste a second, throwing open the door and stepping into the cool night air, my feet hit the earth with a soft thud.
Around us, I could hear everything—the chattering vo
