Marcus felt the sting on his face, but it was nothing compared to the ache in his chest. Twenty of them. That's all that remained of the sixty men who had sworn themselves to her. The others, the strongest, the most powerful, the ones she'd favored, were gone. Dead. He could still smell their fading life force on Maddie's clothes, a scent that would haunt him forever.
"We need to talk about what happened." He kept his tone level despite the storm building behind his ribs. "About what comes next."
Derek shifted nervously behind him, and Marcus could sense the other men's tension coiling through the room like smoke. They were all thinking the same thing. Once a beastman mated with a female, that bond was unbreakable. It rewired something fundamental in their brains, made it impossible to even consider another female. Even when that bond was toxic. Even when the female treated them like disposable weapons she could throw at a wall and forget.
