Nicholas’s POV
The smell of blood hit me first.
Not a lot, just enough to prickle the edges of my wolf sense. Down in the dungeon the air always smelled damp and metallic, but this was fresher, sharper. My claws flexed against the arms of my chair before I realized I’d stood up.
“Alpha?” Dan’s voice came across the mind-link, urgent and low. “Cellblock three. Now.”
I didn’t ask questions. Norman surged under my skin, already halfway to a snarl. Mate in danger.
By the time I reached the stairwell, two guards were already unconscious against the wall. Dan stood over a third figure, Bobby, pinning the Gamma to the stone floor with one knee between his shoulder blades. A dagger gleamed in Bobby’s fist, but Dan had bent his wrist back until the blade clattered across the stones.
Esther’s
