Nathan’s POV
The moment had come faster than it should have.
Or maybe I had forced it to.
Either way—there was no going back now.
I stood at the edge of the tree line, the palace rising in the distance like something untouchable, something built on the assumption that no one would dare challenge it directly. That assumption was about to break. The air felt different tonight. Charged. Not just with the presence of the wolves I had gathered behind me, not just with the anticipation of what we were about to do, but with something else—something deeper, something that pulled at me in a way I couldn’t ignore. The bond. Not the one Damon held over her. Something else. Something I had learned to recognize not as a connection imposed on me, but as instinct, as awareness sharpened by everything
