Jack-Eye raises a skeptical eyebrow.
A rustling sound from the camper draws my attention. Through the window, I catch a flicker of movement—a flash of rainbow hair. Lyre stands just beyond the glass, watching us. For a split second, her eyes meet mine, and something cold slithers down my spine.
"Did you see that?"Fenris's voice rumbles between us, so Jack-Eye can hear. Andrew and Thom are oblivious; they don't have access to our pack link.
I frown in the strange woman's direction. "See what?"
"Her eyes. They shifted. She appears human, but for a minute they looked like a cat's."
It's a level of detail I would have never noticed, but Lyre's already disappeared from the window.
"There's something not right about that woman," I mutter.
"You're just annoyed she threw us out." But Jack-Eye also frowns at the camper; Fenris's words must have shaken him.
A human with cat eyes? "Could she be some sort of cat shifter?"
He scratches at his red hair, squinting at nothing. "No, I don't think so. We would be able to smell it if she was."
Strange. "We're not leaving." As if I'm going to leave Grace in that woman's hands without supervision.
But my beta ignores me.
"Pack up," Jack-Eye commands, turning to Andrew and Thom. "We're relocating in an hour."
My jaw clenches. Jack-Eye has been my beta since the beginning, but his audacity has been growing over the years. Granted, I've allowed it to happen, trusting in his judgment, but—
"I said, start breaking down the tent," Jack-Eye continues, not even glancing in my direction. As if my opinion is irrelevant. As if his king's word means nothing.
The rage rises so suddenly I can barely contain it. Heat courses through my veins, turning my blood to liquid fire. I stand, the flimsy camping chair toppling backward with a clatter.
"I said we're staying." My voice drops an octave, rumbling from somewhere deeper than my chest. The air around us thickens, and the campground grows unnaturally still. Every living creature for fifty yards instinctively freezes.
Jack-Eye's shoulders stiffen, but he doesn't turn.
That's when I let it slip—just a taste of what I've been restraining. The power of dominance rolls off me in waves, invisible but devastating.
Jack-Eye's body jerks like he's been struck. He drops to one knee, a strangled sound escaping his throat. Behind him, Andrew and Thom collapse face-first onto the ground, limbs twitching as they struggle against the crushing weight of my command.
"You do not countermand me," I growl, each word vibrating with power. "You do not ignore me. You do not make decisions without my approval."
The pressure intensifies, and Jack-Eye's other knee buckles. His palms hit the dirt, but his face remains stoic.
"I am not some petty Alpha you can placate or redirect. I am your King."
The dominance pouring from me is uncontrolled now, feral. It presses down on everything around us—flattening the grass, stirring the dust, raising goosebumps on exposed skin. Even the air seems to bend beneath its weight.
Fenris's voice slashes through my rage.You're drawing attention. The local pack will sense this display.
"Let them come," I snarl, too far gone to care. "Let them see what happens when my authority is questioned."
Think of Grace.
Grace. My dominance falters for half a second—just enough for Jack-Eye to suck in a breath.
The pressure in the air still throbs with each beat of my heart when a sudden loud crack splits the tension.
The camper door flies open, slamming against the exterior wall hard enough to rattle the windows.
