Chapter 23
Alpha Thorne’s POV
Her scent clung to me long after the battle — cedar, honeysuckle, and the faintest trace of frost. Even with the blood of her captors still drying on my skin, she was the only thing my senses could focus on.
When she slid from my back, she stood unsteady but unbroken. And for the first time, I saw her.
Not in visions through the bond. Not as a shadow half-remembered. But here — in flesh, in breath, in defiance.
Kaia.
Her hair fell in tangled waves, dark with strands of moonlit silver catching the firelight. Her eyes — gods, her eyes — were storm and flame all at once, steady even after everything they had done to her. Bruises marked her skin, pale and purple against delicate strength, yet she carried them like battle paint. Every line of her face spoke o
