Evening was settling over the pack territory like a heavy blanket, casting everything in shades of purple and gold that would have been beautiful under different circumstances.
We'd left the room in tense silence, Nicklaus having been dragged back to whatever makeshift prison they were keeping him in.
I tried not to think about the chains, about the way the iron had been smoking against his skin, about the resigned look in his eyes as they'd led him away. He was a vampire, dangerous, attempted to kidnap my best friend, but he was also the only reason I hadn't completely lost control of my shadows that day.
That had to count for something.
Now we were walking through the pack grounds, and I couldn't help but notice how Ronan, Rowan, and Giovanni had positioned themselves around me. Not obviously, not in a way that screamed "bodyguard detail," but close enough that anyone wanting to get to me would have to go through them first.
It was both comforting and deeply unsettling.
