Chapter 71

• *Dante*
• I leaned back in my chair, fingers brushing the edge of the desk as I stared at the screen before me. The soft glow from the monitor reflected off my face, but my eyes remained fixed on the feed from Isabel's room. She was seated by the window, her head bent forward read. Her concentration was almost palpable. She turned the pages of her book every three minutes, and she had never looked up once since I'd been watching her. Every so often, I caught the faint furrow of her brow; a subtle crease that told me whatever it was she was reading was pulling at her, demanding more than just her quiet attention. The way she reacted to it was almost... endearing, in a way.
• It was a different book from before. I had no doubt once she exhausted all the books in the nightstand drawer, that she would ask for more. Unlike me, she didn't read about werewolf lore and the myths of our past. She loved reading tales of events that had only been imagined but had never actually occurred. Watching her read stirred something in me. It reminded me of how little I knew her. My mind wandered, slipping from her presence to Bianca and the conversation we'd had the day before. I hadn't been able to shake the thoughts since. Bianca had laid it out so clearly; she wanted us to pay off the debt I owed the Alphas as soon as possible. The ones who had stepped in to help manage the attack on the pack.