LYRA'S POV
The shadow creatures circling me felt alive in ways I could not explain. They moved with purpose beyond my conscious direction, responding to threats before I registered them. The two Council guard wolves had stopped attacking, frozen in place by instinctive recognition that they faced something far beyond a simple marked Alpha. My corruption had transcended the boundaries of what the Council understood about marked wolves, and I stood at the precipice of something that would either validate everything I had built or destroy it completely.
