Malrik and Elira were still settling into the house when Kael’s hand brushed the small of my back—gentle, grounding, but purposeful.
“There’s one more thing we need to deal with, Starlight,” he said quietly.
I knew who he meant.
“Jax,” I answered.
Kael nodded once. His jaw tightened, the Alpha slipping back into place like armor locking over skin.
“He’s waiting for us.”
Surprisingly, he didn’t take me to the Alpha’s house inside the woods. Instead, we headed toward the outer ring of Polaris, to a place I realized—somehow with a small jolt of surprise—I had never seen before.
Orion’s house.
From the outside, it was sturdy and unassuming. Stone and dark wood, practical rather than grand. Inside, it was… exactly what I should have expected.
Sparse.
Clean.
Functional.
Weapons li
