He turned and left, but the moment he stepped into the hallway, his expression hardened. The guards waiting outside straightened.
"Search the perimeter again," Leonel ordered. "He didn't come alone."
The guards exchanged uneasy looks but saluted. Leonel didn't wait he strode down the stairs and out the manor doors, boots hitting the stone path with sharp, purposeful steps.
His horse paced restlessly, sensing his fury.
"Not a rogue," Leonel muttered under his breath. "Someone sent him. Someone with a message."
But why Aria?
His father's enemy list was long politics, territory, blood feuds that went back decades. Any one of them could use Aria as leverage.
And yet… Leonel couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't about his father at all.
This felt personal.
As he mounted his horse, a breeze shifted carrying a scent that didn't belong to this land. A faint trace, almost nonexistent, but enough for a wolf's nose to catch it.
