I walked behind Ryan, my steps light but heart heavy. Each hallway echoed memories I tried to bury his rejection, the shame, the silence of the elders. But now, I wasn’t the same girl who had been cast out. I was stronger. Sharper. More dangerous.

And yet, something strange began stirring inside me the moment I crossed the pack border. A heat at the base of my spine. A buzzing under my skin.

The bond.

The fated mate bond we never severed.

Ryan led me to his office, and I could feel ...