Healing
The days after the confrontation moved more slowly than the ones that had led up to it.
There was no formal challenge hanging over the territory. No countdown to neutral ground. No residual legal claim that could be invoked at any moment. The record was clean, the door formally closed, and for the first time since Lila had arrived in Silver Ridge the future felt less like a series of defenses and more like open space. The broken bond still existed—she felt it in the mornings when she first woke, a dull bruise rather than a fresh tear—but its grip had loosened. In its place the newer bond pulsed with a steadiness that no longer felt provisional.
Ronan did not push the quiet.
He simply made room for it. Mornings began with coffee in the kitchen before most of the pack was fully a
