Three days passed.
Lyra wasn’t confined to the stone chamber, but the freedom Kael granted her was hollow. The guards tracked her steps. The pack eyed her with suspicion. Everywhere she went, she felt the pressure of being watched — and not just because of the child she carried.
She was a threat. An outsider. A wolf with too much history and no allegiance.
And Kael had disappeared again.
He hadn’t come to her door, hadn’t summoned her, hadn’t even looked her way when she crossed the training fields that morning. It was like he was trying to pretend she didn’t exist — like avoiding her would sever the tether still stretched taut between them.
But Lyra felt it. Every time he was near, her skin prickled with awareness. Her pulse quickened. Her wolf — the wild, wounded creature buried dee
