Rynaria stood still long after Kael vanished into the dark. The weight of his voice lingered in the air like fog—thick, unsettled, and far too close.

She could still feel him.

Not in presence, but in energy.

In the way her skin tingled.

In the way her thoughts refused to still.

She didn’t want this. Didn’t ask for it. She was here to survive, not to stir the waters of old bloodlines or flirt with danger wrapped in wolfskin and smiles.

Yet here she was, heart pounding for all the wrong reasons.

She turned back toward the house. The door creaked shut behind her with a whisper of finality. Inside, the silence pressed close, heavy with dust and memory. She leaned against the wall, pressing a palm to her chest to still her pulse.

Kael Thornridge.

The name alone was dangerous. He was the alpha’s son—political, territorial, bound by ancient law. If her presence became public, it could reignite tensions between their kinds. Or worse, draw attention from those who had agreed to her exile on the condition that she disappear.

And yet...

He hadn’t threatened her.

He hadn’t exposed her.

He’d warned her.

And that unsettled her more than open hostility ever could.

She sank onto the old couch, pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders. The walls groaned with wind and time, but even their creaks were more welcome than the silence of her thoughts.

She’d been raised to view his kind as volatile, primal, and uncontrollable.

But Kael?

Kael was deliberate.

And that made him dangerous in ways her training had never prepared her for.