Chapter 71

• Celeste’s POV
• The apartment was small, but the moment I stepped inside, a subtle warmth hit me—something I hadn’t felt in a long time. On the old wooden table lay a pale green cloth, and on top of it, several steaming dishes. The aroma was simple but comforting, carrying with it a strange sense of home, something I had been denied for too long in the Frost Family halls.
• I froze, my senses sharpening. There was a wolfish instinct in me, honed from years of surviving among predators—both human and lupine—that made me pause before fully trusting the scene. And then Elijah, wearing a gray-blue apron that looked far too neat for someone like him, stepped out from the kitchen carrying two bowls of rice.