Mia walked back toward her room with her heart pounding so hard she felt each beat in the center of her throat. The grass was still damp beneath her shoes, but she barely noticed it. Her mind was too loud—each thought crashing into the next, each memory of Leon's voice echoing inside her.
"I don't care whether I'm forgiven or accepted… but I won't let anyone stand beside you."
Those words wrapped around her like hands she could feel but could never push away. Possessive. Fierce. Reckless. Heartfelt. Everything she wasn't supposed to want—and everything her wolf reacted to before she even understood why.
She pressed her palm to her chest, feeling the faint tremble beneath her ribs as she walked slowly down the quiet corridor. The academy felt too big suddenly, too echoing, too hollow for a heart this full and this aching.
She had told herself to stay away from Leon.
She had promised her mother she wouldn't get tangled in what she couldn't undo.
