Maddox POV
She's in heat.
I can smell it, thick and sweet, curling through the air like smoke, and I have no idea how the others are standing here talking like it doesn’t affect them. Because it’s hitting me like a storm. My wolf is pacing beneath my skin, wild and restless. She was gone. Days passed without a word, without a trace. And now she’s back.
And she’s in heat.
"Just agree," she says, her voice sharp and tired. "Then I can go back to the rogues. To my home."
I scoff, unable to hold it back.
Her home? No. That place isn’t her home. She doesn’t belong there. She belongs here, with us.
"Veyra," Rael says, stepping forward, his tone careful. "As a rogue myself, I can tell you right now, living with them isn’t what you want. It’s not what you need."
She turns to face him, and her eyes flash with betrayal.
"How could you turn on your brothers?" she demands. "How could you stand with these three and treat the rest of them like animals?"
Rael’s face twists. The pain is immediate and
