The courtyard did not empty after Tanaia left.
If anything, it tightened.
Wolves lingered where they stood, pretending to adjust weapons or speak in low voices, but no one truly looked away. The air was still heavy with her scent, sharp and foreign, like frost on skin. I could feel it scraping against my nerves, trying to settle where it did not belong.
Derek turned slightly toward me.
“You should come inside,” he said. His voice was calm again, but there was effort behind it. “Before this turns into something else.”
Something else had already begun.
I felt it in my chest, in the way my wolf paced instead of resting. She was not done. She was unsettled by how close Derek had come to bending, and by how easily Tanaia had tried to claim the space beside him.
I shook my head. “If we le
