Joan and Elara had fallen asleep hours ago. Their soft breaths filled the omega quarters, steady and rhythmic, but my own refused to fall into that same calm pattern. My mind was still caught somewhere between fear and disbelief, between the echo of his voice and the truth I didn't dare accept.
A wildflower by the roadside.
The words had burrowed into me like a thorn. They didn't belong to him not to that man whose eyes were colder than winter steel, whose voice could strip the courage out of anyone who dared to meet his gaze. Alpha Zach Varyn didn't see people. He judged them, broke them, ruled them. Yet for one strange, impossible heartbeat, I had heard something human inside him.
Something that shouldn't exist.
I turned onto my side, clutching the rough blanket closer to my chest. The wind outside moaned like a wounded beast. My heart wouldn't stop pounding.
Maybe I'd imagined it. Maybe this cursed ability hearing his inner voice was twisting my sanity again.
