The shrine did not fully settle after my return.
Stone groaned beneath our feet as if the mountain itself were trying to remember what shape it used to hold. Silver fractures glowed faintly in the air where the Fold had sealed, like scars that refused to fade.
Kael still hadn’t released me.
His arms were locked around me as if I might vanish again if he loosened his grip even a fraction. His heartbeat thundered against my ear—too fast, too hard, the rhythm of an Alpha who had run himself beyond fear and into something jagged and raw.
“You’re real,” he whispered hoarsely. “I don’t care what gods say—you’re real.”
I lifted my shaking hands and pressed them to his chest.
“I stayed real for you,” I said softly.
The bond answered.
Not with the old pull of gravity and ache—but with somet
