Chapter 23

• Zeva’s POV
• The air in the Northern packhouse was heavy, thick with unspoken tension and the lingering scent of pine and burning wood. I had avoided Aric all day, keeping to the shadows of the library and the corridors where whispers and curious eyes could not reach me. But he found me anyway, as he always did, his presence impossible to ignore, impossible to evade.
• He appeared silently at the library doorway, hands tucked behind his back, coat brushing the floor. The light caught his profile,jaw clenched, eyes sharp, wolf coiled under his skin like a living thing,and I felt the old pulse of heat in my chest. The bond flared violently, a warning and a pull all at once, and I clenched my fists to keep from responding, to keep from running.