Alpha Orion
He said nothing, his silence a shield, but the taste of ash coated his tongue.
She regarded him as no one else dared to, her dark gaze unflinching, stripping him down past the title and the hard mask he wore. In all the North, she alone could speak to him this way, she and the unconscious storm of a woman in his arms.
Her eyes lingered on Rey, and when she spoke again, her voice carried the weight of tender recognition. "That must be her, then."
Orion's gaze narrowed, sharp and dangerous, as his arms tightened around Rey. The priestess should not have known, not this soon, not so surely. Had word of his mate already reached her ears, carried on by whispers in the shadows?