Aisha didn’t sleep.
She lay awake in the cabin long after the fire burned low, staring at the ceiling, replaying the same moment over and over again—the snap of bone, the wolf folding into a man, Callen’s silver eyes in the snow.
By morning, confusion had hardened into resolve.
When Callen returned with a mug of tea, she didn’t thank him.
“We need to talk,” she said flatly.
He stopped in the doorway. “I know.”
“You knocked me out,” she continued, voice steady despite the storm inside her. “You brought me here. You told me I wasn’t ready. And then you just… expected me to accept that.”
He set the mug down slowly. “I expected you to rest.”
“I don’t need rest,” she snapped. “I need the truth.”
Silence stretched between them, heavy and deliberate.
Callen’s jaw tightened. “What you sa
