CIARA
The sound of the door clicking locked from the outside echoed through the dim room. I let out a breath and slid down the heavy wood until I was sitting on the floor.
I pulled my knees tight to my chest. The scent of vanilla and rain from the bath I took earlier was still on my skin, but under it, I could still smell Hayes. it was everywhere in this bedroom. It made my chest ache.
“He protected us,” a faint whisper echoed deep in my mind.
I went completely still. It was my wolf. She had been locked away so deep inside me for years, silenced by my father’s constant beatings in the Riverstone pack. She never spoke. But today, after Hayes snapped that northern warrior’s neck, she was trying to wake up.
“He killed for us,” she whispered again, a strange warmth spreading through my st
