Nolan POV
The house was quiet. Too quiet.
I sat behind my desk, papers in neat piles I didn’t plan to read just yet. I hadn’t touched a single one since the morning, my mind elsewhere.
The usual rhythm of the pack, the meetings, the schedules—they all felt distant, irrelevant.
Cassian had checked in earlier, voice low and steady. “Ellie is fine, Nolan. She’s safe at home with the twins.”
The word “home” had been a knife in my heart, but I’d let it go. They were safe. That had been enough. I had let it rest. No pursuit. No ultimatums.
And yet the absence of her presence gnawed at me. Every hour without seeing her twisted tighter around my chest, a quiet reminder that I had lost control the moment she’d slipped through my fingers.
I had replayed that moment over and over in my mind—h
