Around them, the ceremonial chamber had gone silent. Hundreds of eyes watched—his people, his court, the rivals who’d hoped this night would expose his weakness. They saw their Alpha King with his arms wrapped around a human female, his muzzle buried in her hair, the feral glow of Moon Tear madness bleeding from his eyes.
Let them see.
Sylas lifted his head, and the snarl that tore from his throat echoed off the vaulted ceiling. Every male in the chamber flinched. Every head bowed, throats exposed in submission so absolute it bordered on worship.
Except Xar.
The Lux Knight captain stood near the fallen containment unit, his green eyes narrowed with calculation. Not afraid—not quite—but wary in ways he hadn’t been moments before. His test had worked. Just not the way he’d intended.
Sylas’s attention fixed on him with predatory precision.
Threat. Challenged what’s mine. Must be eliminated.
The beast surged forward, ready to cross the chamber and tear the captain apart with claws that had killed three challengers during the Great Challenge. Ready to paint the stone with blood until no one would everdare—
“Sylas.”
Elsa’s voice cut through the red haze. Her hand tightened in his fur, nails scraping skin, and the sensation grounded him just enough to pause.
“Not here.” She was shaking—he could feel every tremor where their bodies pressed together—but her voice stayed steady. “Take me somewhere safe. Please.”
Safe. Nest. Ours.
The beast understood that. Understood the need to remove its prize from the presence of so many watching eyes, so manypotential threats. To take her somewhere private where the claiming could be completed without interference.
His arm tightened around her waist. The crystal she’d cleansed still glowed in her other hand—evidence of whatever she’d done, whatever power she’d channeled—but he barely registered it. All that mattered was her warmth against him, her scent in his lungs, the thread of awareness that pulsed between them like a second heartbeat.
“Mine.” He lifted her, and she made a small sound—surprise, maybe, or fear—but didn’t struggle. Smart female. His smart, brave, impossible female.
The court remained frozen as he carried her toward the doors. No one moved. No one spoke. Even Xar stayed still, though his green eyes tracked them with an intensity that promised future complications.
Future. Later. Not now.
Now there was only her.
The corridors blurred past. Sylas moved without conscious thought, his body following paths carved into memory by years of habitation. Guards scattered from his approach. Servants pressed themselves against walls, throats exposed, trembling as their Alpha King stalked past with his prize clutched against his chest.
He didn’t see them. Didn’t care.
The beast was too loud now, drowning out everything except the need to reach his chambers. To seal the doors. To have her alone where no other male could look at her, scent her, eventhinkabout touching what was his.
The ancient mechanisms recognized his presence and the doors swung open. His chambers waited—familiar, safe,homein ways he’d never allowed himself to acknowledge. The massive bed with its nest of furs. The weapons on the walls. The windows overlooking the fortress below.
And now, her.
He carried her to the bed and laid her down among the furs with a gentleness that surprised even him. The beast wanted to tear and claim and mark, but something deeper held it back. Some instinct that recognized she was fragile, breakable, human in ways that required care even when the madness screamed for violence.
The crystal rolled from her fingers, forgotten, its blue glow steady and clean. Proof of what she’d done. What she was.
Blessed. Chosen. Ours.
Sylas prowled over her, his bulk blocking out the light. She looked up at him with those wide blue eyes, her golden hair spread across his furs like sunlight on snow, and he had to close his eyes against the intensity of wanting her.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” His voice came out fractured. Rough. Barely recognizable as speech. “The test. The crystal. You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You could havedied.” His claws flexed against the furs beside her head, leaving gouges in the fabric. “For what? To prove yourself to males who would never deserve you? To satisfy Xar’s ambition?”