I'd overslept, my body still recovering from the night run with Theodore and the overwhelming sensations of the mate bond we'd discovered. My fingers trembled slightly as I finished the call with Liam, our senior security trainer back at Blood Moon. The weight of responsibility never quite left, even here in the gleaming heart of the Royal City, hundreds of miles from my territory's borders. I hung up, my stomach growling a reminder that I'd missed the first half of breakfast, and that a certain Lycan King would be waiting.
The hotel suite felt too grand, too foreign – all polished marble and moonstone accents that caught the morning light in ways that made my eyes ache. I smoothed down my blouse, a deep crimson that matched our pack colours, and tried to quiet the restless pacing of Arte
