Chapter 192

Caleb woke before the bells, before the guards changed, before the pack fully remembered what it had survived. The stronghold felt different in the early hours. Not empty. Stripped. Like a place that had shed its armor and hadn’t yet decided what to wear next.

He found Kaia in the lower courtyard.

She was barefoot on the frost-dark stone, eyes closed, breath steady. The mark along her ribs pulsed faintly, visible only if you knew where to look. It wasn’t flaring. It wasn’t ...