Rose’s POV Later — Jason’s Office, 9:17 PM The door locked with a soft, final *click*, the sound echoing like a vow in the hushed space. Wards shimmered briefly along the heavy oak frame—soft golden threads weaving through the ancient stone, pulsing with protective intent. Not for secrecy tonight, as we’d needed in those early, shadowed days of our bond, but for peace. A deliberate bubble of calm amid the growing storm outside, muffling the distant murmur of students dissecting the evening’s drama in the torchlit halls: snippets of “sovereign precedent” and “Eastern dogs” filtering through like echoes of a battlefield. The office was a sanctuary of worn leather and old books, shelves groaning under tomes of Accord law and Blood Wars histories, the air thick with the scent of aged paper, flickering beeswax candles, and Jason’s ever-present pine-smoke essence—dark, resinous, laced with the sharp bite of cold iron from his alpha heritage. A single brass lamp on the desk cast warm poo
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