The healer does not bow when she enters. That is the first thing I notice.
No hesitation. No acknowledgment of rank. No deference.
She steps into the room like it belongs to her. Like nothing in it outranks her purpose. Her gaze moves once... slow, assessing... taking in the space, the exits, the light, the distance between Willow and me.
Then it lands on Willow. And stays there.
“Everyone else out,” she says.
My warriors don’t move. They wait for me.
I don’t take my eyes off her. “You dismiss my guards in my own territory?”
“I dismiss noise,” she replies evenly. “If you want me to work, I need silence. Control. Privacy.”
A beat.
Then, pointedly... “Or you can keep them and waste your time.”
The room stills. There it is. The challenge Maerin warned me about.
My wolf presses forw
