Chapter 46

• AUBREY
• I jolt awake with a scream tearing from my throat, my heart hammering so violently it feels like it might burst from my chest. The nightmare clings to me like a second skin, more vivid and horrific than any before it. Every detail burns with crystal clarity—the metallic scent of blood thick in the air, the desperate screams of my pack echoing across the coronation grounds, the sickening wet sound of crawls meeting flesh.
• But it's my brother's death that destroys me completely. James, lying broken in my thirteen-year-old arms, his neck torn open in jagged wounds that pump crimson onto the trampled wildflowers. His eyes—so bright just moments before during the ceremony—growing dim as life bleeds out of him. The way his hand went limp in mine, how his final breath rattled in his chest like autumn leaves.