ALCYDE
The walk back to my cottage stretches through mud that sucks at our boots, rain still hammering the compound like the sky wants to wash away what just happened. Sophia's hand trembles in mine—not from cold but from something deeper. Pack members drop their heads as we pass, acknowledging their new Alpha, but I barely register them. My ribs throb where Anson's fist connected, blood seeps from the cut above my eye, and all I can think about is the woman beside me who watched me exile my brother without flinching.
Inside, I lean against the closed door while she stands in the middle of my living room, dripping and uncertain. The cottage feels smaller with her here, more real. Rain streams down windows in sheets that turn the outside world into watercolor blur.
"You're bleeding ever
