Zayn Chaos
The night was heavy, swollen with silence.
I stood alone in the courtyard, the moon casting pale light over the stone arches and the training yard beyond.
My packhouse loomed behind me, filled with wolves who still believed their Alpha-to-be was holding himself together. They didn’t know that every second without Aila gnawed deeper into my bones, that sleep had abandoned me, that reason was only a thin thread I was ready to cut.
I had packed only what I needed. A blade strapped to my hip, honed sharper than my own will. A waterskin, already light. A strip of leather to bind my wrist when the ritual demanded blood. The grove would not allow for comforts. It would strip me down to nothing until only truth and desperation remained.
That was fine. Desperation was all I had le
