Chapter 48:
ALESSIA
The pack house was too quiet when I got back, and quiet had stopped meaning peace the moment the Ward-Stone spoke my name. No one said it out loud, but I could feel it in the way Blackwell’s eyes tracked me across the room, in the way Asher’s jaw tightened when I passed him, in the way Axel leaned against the doorframe without moving, watching me like he was deciding whether I was still me or something wearing me. The deal was done, or at least paused, and the silence from the north border wasn’t the hungry, grinding silence of before. It was waiting, and waiting was worse because it gave my mind too much room to imagine what it was waiting for. I told myself I had bought us time, told myself the Stone understood that the pack wasn’t collateral, but understanding was
