Kael’s POV
The courtyard had been cleared.
But the scent of blood remained.
It clung to the air, to the stone, to the skin of every wolf who had stood there and witnessed what should not have happened. What I should not have allowed to happen.
My gaze moved over the ground slowly.
Measured.
Controlled.
But inside, there was nothing calm about what I was holding back.
She had lost control.
And worse...
I had felt it.
Not as an observer.
Not as her Alpha.
But as something far more dangerous.
Connected.
Bound.
I clenched my jaw slightly, forcing the thought back before it could take form.
Because that was not something I could afford to acknowledge.
Not now.
Not with everything shifting around us.
“Kael.”
Elder Maren’s voice cut through the silence behind me.
I didn’t tu
