Zaiden’s POV
The council hall still smelled of blood and smoke, but it wasn’t the rogues that lingered in my mind. It was her words.
“Maybe I was a mistake.”
They cut deeper than any blade. And when I reached for her, when I tried to hold her, she pulled away. Since then, she’d avoided me at every turn. When I passed her in the corridors, her eyes slid past me like I wasn’t there.
My wolf hated it—hated that she was slipping further, hated that I’d let my temper wound her. But pride kept me silent. If she wanted distance, I would give it. For now.
Instead, I drowned myself in duty. Strategy, patrols, maps spread across the war table. Anything but the ache in my chest.
Cole stood at my side as always, voice steady, presence familiar. He had been my right hand through every battle. If
