NARRATORKatherine anxiously watched the landscape rush past.She hadn’t slept after Elliot left. Instead, she spent that time replaying their last encounter in her mind.The Duke had seen right through her. She should have expected it—she would starve if she had to rely on acting to survive.She was too temperamental and let her emotions take over too easily.Her greatest advantage was that people barely paid attention to Rossella. She was always secluded in the castle, and the Duke never introduced her to high society.Yet Elliot had unmasked her. Then again, he was just as strange as she was."A werewolf…" she murmured, bringing a hand to her mouth, frowning.The evidence was there—those wild growls, the way his pupils shifted so many times, the vague memories of when she was stabbed, including the taste of his powerful blood.Was that why she healed so quickly?And then there was his beastly, sexy way of making love to her—and that thing that got stuck inside her after he came. Wh

NARRATORNicolais' leg fractured instantly, his bones splintering as a powerful log cut off his escape.It had appeared out of nowhere, wielded by the rough hands of a man hidden behind a tree.He crashed to the ground, rolling violently before twisting around to face them."Please!" he sobbed, crawling over the damp earth, pain vibrating in every word. "I won’t say anything, let me go! I have a family, I have children and a wife!"Through his blurred vision, he saw the two naked men emerge.They had been waiting for him; he never really had a chance to escape."I'm sorry, but I have a family too," Aldo responded before pouncing on the soldier, slashing his throat with razor-sharp claws.His death cry was swallowed by the vastness of the forest."Aldo, Elliot is coming," Tomas warned, turning to watch as the dark-haired warrior emerged swiftly from the deep underbrush."Are you both alright?" Elliot let out a relieved sigh upon finding them safe.He barely spared a glance at the soldi

NARRATOR"Francis!" the housekeeper exclaimed, cutting off her conversation with the gardener mid-sentence.The young man dismounted in a single leap, his face drawn and his hair disheveled from the wind."Come with me," he said, almost in a whisper, gripping her arm and dragging her inside the castle.Once inside her first-floor chamber, she slammed the door shut and locked it."Speak, Francis. What happened?"Her son began pacing in circles, running his hand through his hair over and over, his nerves on edge."The Duke knows he’s being robbed at the southern borders. He discovered the smuggling of goods and… and… I think he also knows about the plagues. I don’t know how much detail he has, but he found something.""How did he find out? Be more specific!" she snapped, grabbing his shoulders to stop his frantic pacing."I don’t know for sure, damn it!" Francis shoved her hands away. "It all happened so fast.""Keep your voice down!" she hissed, stepping closer. "Francis, focus. Detail

NARRATORIN DUKE THESIO’S CAMP…"Have you gotten anything out of that spy?" Thesio asked the messenger who returned on horseback.He was stationed in an improvised camp, a bit far from the main camp controlled by his general."No, sir, not even under torture has he said anything useful," the man reported. Thesio frowned, sitting on the fallen trunk of a tree.He would have liked to intimidate that man himself, but it wasn’t in his best interest to be in such a compromising place.He knew Elliot; that man would latch onto anything to incriminate him, and now, with that secure box in his possession, Thesio feared the worst.In an extreme case, he could find himself a scapegoat, claim that Arthur was the mastermind, that he had acted behind his back. That’s why it wasn’t wise to show his face."Go back and tell Arthur to eliminate him, dismantle all the evidence, and pack up the camp without leaving anything behind," he decided instantly.Enough of this game of cat and mouse. It was clea

NARRATORHe lifted his head and roared to the skies, a guttural sound ripped from the depths of his throat, sending flocks of birds scattering in terror at the absolute predator about to emerge.Alexia saw it all. A murky yellow liquid trickled down her legs. The stench of fear, of death, thickened the air.Even so, she saw one last chance to escape. While Elliot wrestled with these strange new sensations—no longer suppressing them, but letting them flow like a dam fully unleashed—she stumbled to her feet, urine still streaming down her thighs, and began to run in a frantic, staggering sprint, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the beast.Elliot collapsed onto all fours, hands and knees pressing into the ground. His nails, now black, even those on his feet, lengthened, shredding through his boots like sharpened blades.His jaw stretched, reshaping, ready to expand into a ferocious muzzle. His skin burned as if flayed alive, every hair follicle dilating, preparing