I returned to my hotel suite, shutting the door against the opulent hallway with its gleaming marble and moonstone accents. The room felt too grand, too foreign – all polished surfaces and elaborate furnishings that somehow managed to be both beautiful and subtly exclusionary. Even the chair at the desk was designed for Lycan proportions, leaving my feet dangling slightly when I sat down. I sighed, running my fingers through my hair, trying to process everything that had happened at breakfast – the ministerial confrontation, the planning session, and most of all, those moments when Theo's eyes had met mine across the table and something electric had passed between us.
The mate bond. I still couldn't fully wrap my mind around it. Artemis had no such reservations, her certainty radiating th
