Chapter 32 · No More Chains

The altar was cold. Iron bit into my wrists, silver burned across my throat. Derek stood three feet away, watching me the way he used to watch me sleep.

I tried to shift. Nothing came. The metal drank it down, turned my wolf into something small and choking.

"Don't bother." He stepped closer, close enough I could smell the cologne he always wore. The one that used to make me flinch. "Eclipse iron. Your kind can't break it."

My kind. Like I'd been lying to him the whole time. Like I'd known.

"Derek." I kept my voice steady. "You don't have to do this."

"I really do." He crouched down, eye level now. His hand came up, brushed hair off my face. I jerked back and the chain rattled. "You made me look insane, Layla. Filing reports, telling people you were sick, that you needed help. And the whole time you were out there turning into a monster."

"I didn't know."

"Doesn't matter." He stood, walked to the edge of the chalk circle someone had drawn around the altar. Guild symbols, I think. Or older. "The hunt's legal now. Self-defense. You're a documented threat.