The wind halted.
It wasn’t a trick of the mind.
The forest, the sentinels, even the earth itself seemed to hold its breath, as if the entire world was waiting for the hammer to fall.
He was still there, standing before me, with the stillness only predators possess after they’ve already won. There was no smirk on his lips. No arrogance. Just certainty.
And that was what unsettled me the most.
“There are truths, Selene,” he spoke my name like he knew the exact weight of every syllable, “that are not sought. They find you.”
My jaw clenched.
I didn’t move.
I didn’t speak.
But inside me, Skadi smiled. A dark, anticipating smile.
“Say it,” I whispered in my mind. “Spit it out, whatever it is.”
And he did.
“The truth is that I am your true mate.”
The echo of those words was a dull ex
