Zarek
All my attempts to see Valtira had failed. Every time I thought I’d catch her, she was gone, or she’d made herself “unavailable” as if she somehow knew exactly when I planned to appear.
It didn’t matter that I sent messages or tasked maids to check on her; she always slipped away, vanished into some shadowed corner of the palace, and the matebond tugged at me like a live wire until I ached.
My wolf paced and twisted inside me, restless and desperate.
Even during council meetings, her absence was a gnawing presence; every whisper of her perfume in a hallway made my head spin and my heart jump, only to find empty air.
Each second she stayed away fanned the beast hotter. Tonight I decided I wouldn’t wait for her to come. I could not stand on the threshold of her door any longer,
