The Alpha's Forbidden Flame
Lyra pushed her food around her plate, her appetite gone.
Little flame.
The nickname drifted through her mind again, uninvited.
Her wolf reacted every time she remembered it, a flicker of heat, a restless shift beneath her skin. She hated that it affected her at all.
She shoved the thought away and stood, leaving the hall before anyone could pretend not to notice her leaving.
The rest of the day passed in a blur of routine.
She patrolled the southern ridge with two warriors who barely spoke to her. They kept their distance, walking ahead of her as if she were a stranger, not their future Alpha.