Chapter 8

Scarlett's POV

The exhaustion was starting to hit me as Zane and I approached the pack’s main grounds. My encounter with the man or whatever he was at the heart of the curse had drained me, and all I wanted was to crawl into bed and forget about the darkness clinging to me like a pest.

But I knew better than to think rest would come that easily.

Zane walked beside me, his presence comforting yet filled with what I couldn't exactly pin down. He hadn’t spoken much since we left the woods, and I could feel the questions buzzing in the air between us. I wasn’t ready to face them, not now.

I was about to tell him I needed to get some rest when a voice, syrupy sweet but filled with something far more snaky, cut through the stillness of the night.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, darling.”

I stopped mid-step, my eyes staring at a woman I had never seen before walked toward us with far too much confidence. Her long dark hair swept down her back in waves, and she wore a s