Zara’s POV
Silence followed my words.
Not the peaceful kind.
The heavy kind.
The kind that presses against your skin and dares you to break it.
I could feel everything.
Every heartbeat in the courtyard.
Every drop of blood soaks into the ground.
Every breath Greyson took behind me.
And something else.
Something deeper.
Older.
Watching.
Waiting.
Fire stirred inside me—not just my wolf, but something far greater than her.
Something that did not ask.
Something that expected.
Varik laughed.
The sound was hollow.
Desperate.
“You expect me to fear you?” he sneered, though his stance had already shifted back. “You don’t even know what you are.”
I tilted my head slightly.
“No,” I said calmly. “But I know what you are.”
My gaze swept over his remaining wolves.
“Borrowed stre
