(Ryan’s POV)
The walk back to the Alpha House was quiet, but not in the suffocating way it had been after dinner. This silence was different. It was filled with the echoes of my father’s decree, the weight of his approval, and the lingering, scorching heat of his warning. Every few steps, my arm would brush against Rayla’s, and a jolt, sharp and electric, would shoot up to my shoulder. We were hyper-aware of each other, of the new rules, of the invisible line we were now forced to walk. Four days. Three, now, since the day was almost gone. Three days until we could stop pretending this pull between us was anything less than fate. We reached her door, the same door I had her pinned against just hours ago. The memory was so vivid I could almost feel the smooth wood at her back, the warmth
