Elma’s POVThe morning air was cool against my skin, sharp enough to wake me fully even after another sleepless night. I kept my gloves tight on my hands, boots laced, mask in place. Every movement was calculated, every breath measured, as if the fragile rhythm I built could keep me from shattering.But then I felt him.Roshan.His gaze found me before I even looked up. It always did. That steady, unrelenting weight, as if his eyes were hands stripping me down layer by layer, searching for the weakness I fought to hide. I told myself I hated it…hated him…but the lie trembled inside me, unsteady. Because what I really hated was the way my stomach twisted, the way heat curled low inside me, when his suspicion touched me like fire.He didn’t look at me like Ridwan did. Ridwan’s eyes were gentle, warm, as if he wanted to cup me in his hands and protect me from every storm. When I thought of him, I remembered the river…his closeness, the way his voice had burned when he whispered try me. T
Roshan’s POVSleep was a luxury I hadn’t tasted in days. Not because of the summit’s endless politics, or even the looming threat of traitors lurking in shadows…but because of her. Elma.Her name slid through my thoughts like a blade, sharp enough to cut. I didn’t trust her. Couldn’t. Every instinct in me screamed that she was hiding something, yet every time my eyes found her across the fire, my wolf stilled. As if she belonged there. As if she had always belonged.It infuriated me.I wasn’t like Ridwan. My brother carried his heart too close to the surface, his wolf too eager to believe in softness. I had seen the way he looked at her by the river, his eyes caught in that pull he couldn’t explain. And I had seen the way she looked back…hesitant, frightened, but alive. Alive in a way that made my chest tighten.I gritted my teeth and turned the thought over like a stone in my hand. If Ridwan was reaching for her, then it was my duty to pull him back. To remind him of what was at stak
Roshan’s POV The dawn did nothing to quiet my thoughts.I hadn’t closed my eyes once through the night. Instead, I circled the camp like a restless wolf, every muscle wound tight, every sense sharpened to a blade’s edge. My boots crushed dew-soaked grass. My lungs pulled in the cold air, but it never cleared the fog in my head. My wolf prowled beneath my skin, snarling at shadows that weren’t there, snapping at ghosts it couldn’t reach.But it wasn’t the camp I was guarding. Not the warriors, not the border, not even Ridwan…though I should have been.It was her.Elma.Even when she wasn’t in sight, I felt her. Like a thorn lodged too deep in my flesh to pull free. Small, almost invisible, but aching with every step I took.Ridwan tried to act as if he wasn’t unraveling last night, but I saw it. I always see it. The way his eyes followed her like he’d been starving and she was the only thing that could feed him. The way his hand lingered when he touched her, soft, steady, almost rever
Elma’s POV Sleep was a stranger.Even when I forced my eyes shut, exhaustion clawing at me, I felt them. Both of them. Roshan’s suspicion coiled around me like chains, cold and unrelenting, tightening every time his gaze lingered too long. Ridwan’s gentleness clung to me like a ghost of warmth I couldn’t shake, even when I wanted to. Especially when I wanted to.It was maddening.For years, I had perfected the art of silence. I had taught myself how to become a shadow, how to weave masks out of lies and wear them until I could almost believe them myself. Every move I made was calculated. Every glance, every word, every step—measured and controlled. I was a weapon disguised as a woman, honed by loss, sharpened by rage.And yet… after only a single week in their presence, I was unraveling. Thread by fragile thread.I sat cross-legged in my tent, the canvas walls holding in the thick weight of the night. My gloves muffled the tremble in my fingers as I traced the edge of the dagger rest
Ridwan’s POVSleep never came.I lay in my tent with the darkness pressing in on me, the weight of my brother’s words still echoing. You hate that I touched her first.He wasn’t wrong. But it wasn’t the whole truth either.It wasn’t about touching her first. It was about what I felt when I touched her at all. The way her wrist fit in my hand like it belonged there. The way her pulse jumped beneath my thumb, fast, uneven, betraying the calm mask she wore.The way my wolf had gone silent for one suspended heartbeat—then roared to life like a storm breaking free.That wasn’t chance. That wasn’t coincidence. That was bond.But Roshan was right about one thing—she was hiding something. Every time I looked into her eyes, I saw shadows deeper than she wanted anyone to see. Secrets coiled tight. Pain disguised as strength.And the pull I felt toward her… it terrified me.Because if she truly was what my wolf whispered she was… then the Goddess had cursed us.⸻I left camp before dawn, restles
Roshan’s POVThe night did not end when we left the forest.It followed me.Every step back to camp, every breath I drew, every flicker of moonlight through the branches…I carried her with me. Elma’s eyes, defiant yet trembling. Her voice, edged with steel but threaded with something softer. Her scent, sharp and sweet, that clung to me long after she had walked away.My wolf prowled beneath my skin, restless, growling in my head. She’s hiding. She’s ours. Break her open. Take the truth. Claim her.But I couldn’t. Not yet.Ridwan walked ahead of me, Elma at his side. His hand no longer held hers, but I still saw it…how easy it had been for her to let him touch her. How natural it had been for him to reach for her. My jaw clenched until my teeth ached, but I said nothing. Not there. Not then.Because if I spoke, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be speaking as Alpha… or as a man unraveling.We reached camp near dawn. The fires had died low, the sentries nodding to us with questions in their eye