The cold air tastes different today.
Sharper. Thicker. Honeyed with expectation.
Vera can taste it on her tongue as she steps out of Rael’s private wing, and into the open courtyard. A pressure low in her belly, not unlike the knot that had twisted in her the night before. Not painful. Not unwelcome. Just… present.
And Rael doesn’t walk ahead of her.
He walks beside her.
And that matters.
Matters because she can feel the pack shift even before they see her.
She can smell the caution bleeding through their pheromones. She can hear the crunch of gravel slow as they come to a stop, the murmur of voices die out, and the scrape of claws on stone pause as she approaches.
The wolves are watching.
Openly. Guardedly. Trying to pretend they aren’t assessing her every move.
She keeps her ch
