The rest of Christmas passed too quickly.
The pack celebration stretched late into the night, but after my moment with Zayne outside, everything felt different. Not wrong. Not uncomfortable.
Just… shifted.
Like something inside me had quietly turned and refused to turn back.
Every time we crossed paths after that, there was a pause—an almost imperceptible beat where both of us waited to see if that strange spark would strike again.
Sometimes it did.
Sometimes it didn’t.
But the awareness between us never disappeared.
And Michelle noticed.
Of course she did.
She watched everything.
The next morning the training grounds were already alive before sunrise.
I arrived early out of habit, breath fogging in the cold air as I stepped onto the field. Snow crunched beneath my boots while
