Seraphine had barely processed the sight of Daisy’s former allies turning on her when something else entirely pulled her attention and held it.

The moment her eyes found Daisy’s across the open ground, something happened that she couldn’t quite name. It wasn’t just anger looking back at her from Daisy’s face.

It was something wilder than that, something unhinged and burning, like whatever thin wall had been keeping Daisy’s composure upright had finally given way all at once.

Daisy moved like something had taken over her body, not her wolf, not any rational part of her, but something rawer and uglier that didn’t know how to stop itself.

Her legs were already carrying her forward, her gaze locked and dark, the kind of dark that doesn’t leave room for second thoughts.

Seraphine planted her feet and steadied herself. She wasn’t afraid, and her body moved into readiness anyway, instinct and training taking over before her mind caught up.

But she wasn’t the only one. Every man around her had read the same thing in the air and was already moving, pulling inward, closing ranks. And from inside the gym, someone else had heard it too.

’Sera. You have to die.’

Ravyn had heard them from somewhere inside, and for just a half second, he didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. He stood very still, then he stepped through the doorway, the others filing out close behind him, and what he saw confirmed everything.

Damon was already moving to cut Daisy off, his body angled between her and Seraphine, ready to absorb whatever was coming. But Voren got there first.

He stepped into Daisy’s path with the calm, unhurried precision of someone who had done this a thousand times before and never once found it difficult.

He didn’t reach for her, didn’t grab or redirect. He pulled back and punched her, one clean, measured blow straight to the chest, and the force of it picked Daisy up off her trajectory and dropped her flat on her back against the ground.

She didn’t move again, laying there completely still, the fury wiped clean off her face, unconscious before she’d even finished falling.

Damon looked down at her for a moment, then up at Voren, rearranging his expression to fake concern. "Alpha Voren, you should have let me handle it," he said, his voice carrying just the right amount of worry. "It’d be a miracle if she survives that."

What he didn’t say was that keeping Daisy alive was the whole point. She was still useful. Seraphine’s revenge wasn’t finished yet, and a dead Daisy was a Daisy who never got to feel the full weight of what was coming for her.

"Daisy!"

Ravyn’s voice broke across the entrance of the gym, and he crossed the ground between them fast, dropping to a crouch and gathering the unconscious Daisy up off the dirt.

He cradled her against his chest as he straightened, and his eyes, already burning, swung immediately to Bryan.

"She’s your mother, Bryan. You should be protecting her."

Bryan looked up at him with the clear, untroubled eyes of a child who had already worked out exactly where he stood on the matter. His small hand tightened around Seraphine’s.

"Dad," he said, his voice carrying that particular earnestness that only kids can pull off without trying, "shouldn’t she be protecting me? I’m not even seven yet." He paused just long enough to let that land. "And she was running at Mom."

Ravyn held him in his gaze for a moment, then looked away. He shifted Daisy’s weight in his arms, holding her the way you’d carry someone you were terrified of losing, her head tipped back against his shoulder, and then he turned on Voren.

"She’s a she-wolf, Voren." His voice had gone raw around the edges, something close to breaking in it. He knew exactly what a punch from Voren could do.

He had seen it, felt the aftershock of it even among other Alphas, men built for violence who still staggered under that particular force.

Voren’s wolf hit differently than anything else. "How could you use that much strength on her?"

Voren looked at him steadily, without apology and without defensiveness.

"Surprisingly, I didn’t use much," he said. "You might want to actually train her if you’re serious about her being Luna. She wouldn’t even qualify as a low-class warrior in my pack."

He didn’t say it to wound. He was simply stating a fact upon remembering his training with Seraphine during the Santiago ordeal. He remembered pulling his punches on her too, but she’d taken hits that would have put stronger people on the ground.

She had gone down herself more than once, and still got back up every single time without asking him to make it easier. Daisy, on the other hand, had gone down from one blow she never even had time to brace for. There was no comparison to be made.

"Bring her to the hospital," Seraphine said. "I’ll check on her."

Voren’s frown came fast and sharp. "You should be thanking me for what I did," he said. "Not running after her to patch her up."

Seraphine tilted her head, something unreadable sitting quietly in her expression. "If she dies, who’s left to finish the punishment?" She let the question sit there for a beat. "I’d much rather she lives long enough to complete every last bit of it."

Damon laughed, a short, genuine sound because even when Seraphine appeared to be doing something kind, it turned out on closer inspection not to be kindness at all.

Not when it came to the people who had made themselves her enemies. There was always a longer game running underneath whatever she said out loud.

Ravyn’s jaw worked. The muscle at the corner of it jumped once, twice. "I thought you’d changed," he said, and there was something almost wounded in how he said it. "I thought there was some kindness in you now."

Seraphine’s face stayed exactly where it was, composed, unmoving, serious, but her tone came out carrying the faintest edge of something that wasn’t quite mockery and wasn’t quite amusement, just a cool, quiet certainty.

"Then you read me wrong."

She let him sit with that for exactly one second before she continued, her voice dropping into something more measured and more careful. "Honestly? If I had the chance, I’d drive a knife through her chest and not lose a single night’s sleep over it."

She paused, and what came next landed differently, quieter, more controlled, the way someone speaks when they’re holding something important just inside their chest and deciding how much of it to let out.

"But I found out some things about her. Things I need to verify. I won’t move on her until I’ve got every piece of proof I need. Don’t worry about that."

The silence that followed had weight to it.

Ravyn stared at her. Whatever he’d been expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. The anger in his face hadn’t gone away, but something else was moving through it now, uncertainty, maybe, or the particular unease of realizing you’re standing at the edge of something much bigger than the conversation you thought you were having.

"Seraphine." His voice had changed. "What exactly are you talking about?"