Luther POV
The scent of her blood hit me before I reached the clearing.
It cut through the madness, through the red haze that had consumed my vision, through the screaming need to run, to hunt, to kill.
I had been a creature of pure instinct for what felt like an eternity, my body no longer my own, my mind drowned beneath the Beast's rising tide.
But her scent was a hook in my chest, pulling me toward something I had almost lost.
Xira.
The Beast knew her before I did.
Not as the Rabbit, not as the prisoner, not as the daughter of an enemy. The Beast knew her as mine.
The scent of her fear, her exhaustion, her pain, it ignited something deeper than hunger. Deeper than rage.
Protect.
The word was not a thought. It was a command. And for once, the Beast obeyed.
I exploded from the stalks like a wound being torn open.
