**Chapter 10: The Stand (Turning Point)**
The lodge was quiet except for the fire crackling in the huge stone hearth.
Kira had been moved to a guest room with two guards outside her door. The Council had taken her statement until dawn. Names were named. Accounts were seized. Damien’s father had fled the state sometime before sunrise, leaving a half-empty mansion and a pack in free-fall.
Victor stood at the kitchen island, sleeves rolled up, forearms streaked with ink and scars, pouring two glasses of something dark and expensive. He hadn’t slept in two days, but the exhaustion only made him look more dangerous, like a blade that had been sharpened too many times.
I walked up behind him, barefoot, wearing nothing but his black T-shirt and the weight of everything we’d done tonight. My t
