Chloe’s pov
My knuckles hovered an inch from the office door, the same three sentences running through my head for the tenth time since I'd left my room.
I need three days. I'll bring a guard. I won't embarrass this pack.
I'd rehearsed it walking down the stairs, rehearsed it again crossing the courtyard, and somehow none of it felt any less likely to fall apart the second I said it out loud. I knocked before I could talk myself out of it a second time.
"Come in."
Nash sat behind his desk buried under a landslide of parchment, border patrol reports stacked three deep in places, a half-drunk cup gone cold at his elbow. Candles burned low around the room despite the hour, wax pooling thick at their bases like he'd forgotten to have them replaced days ago. He looked up when I entered, a
