Adrian’s POV
I had always believed a mate bond would feel like certainty.
Not the loud kind—the kind that swept men off their feet and turned them reckless—but a quiet, grounding force. Something steady. Something that aligned with reason as much as instinct. As the future Alpha of Riverline Pack, I’d been taught that fate was not an excuse to abandon judgment. Destiny might open a door, but leadership decided whether to walk through it.
That belief had never been tested.
Not until Silvercrest.
From the moment we crossed their borders, I felt it—an unfamiliar tension in the air, subtle but persistent. Silvercrest was strong, disciplined, proud. Their reputation wasn’t exaggerated. But there was something brittle beneath the surface, something sharp-edged and unforgiving. Power here wa
