64. Golden (Luke POV)

My eyes locked onto the savage ballet unfurling below, a heart-wrenching dance of snarls, fur, and fangs. Clay and Trevor circled each other, predatory and feral, in a pit now an arena of ancestral rites and simmering rivalries.

Every part of me was in a state of upheaval.

My brother had been rash and arrogant, traits I recognized because they lived in me, too. But it was Clay in the pit, the person I had grown to trust and love, fighting my fight. It felt like I was watching a clash between two divergent parts of my own soul.

I gripped the edge of the barrier that separated the spectators from the combatants, my knuckles turning white from the strain. The tension was so thick I felt like I could reach out and grab it. And then, like a knife through the fog, the impulse surged within me. I wished it were me down there. I wished I could carry the weight of this moment for Clay.

I turned my eyes to Lexi. She stood there, solid and resilient next to me, in the eye of this storm. She st