I did not tell the guards about the pendant.
After the first sharp recognition from my wolf, I closed my fingers around the small silver disc and slipped it under the edge of the mattress. My heart beat too fast. The metal still felt warm from my hand. I had never seen the design before, yet something inside me settled the moment I touched it—an odd, quiet certainty that the pendant belonged near me.
I kept it secret through the morning.
When Alaric came to check the security changes in the wing, I had already fastened the thin chain around my neck and tucked the pendant beneath the collar of my dress. The weight of it rested against my skin like a small, steady pulse.
He noticed it almost at once.
We stood in the sitting area of the secured room while he finished speaking with the ca
