Chapter 7
Joe’s POV.
I laced up my running shoes and stepped outside into the cool dawn air, hoping the rhythm of my footsteps would drown out the chaos in my head.
Every breath felt ragged, every muscle tight. Since that night with Lily, the night I’d rejected her, I hadn’t slept properly. My wolf growled on the inside, pacing and snarling, and nothing I did could calm him.
I started with slow strides, then picked up speed. My lungs burned, but I didn’t stop. Running was the only thing that ever cleared my mind of her. Even now, miles from the palace and the pack grounds, her face swam in my thoughts: those pleading eyes, the tremble in her voice when she’d told me that rejecting our bond would kill her wolf,and her.
I was the Alpha, the prince of the pack. I had a reputation to prot
