Chapter 143

Simon's POV The city felt different in the weeks after the war. Not quieter exactly, but less on edge, as if the air itself had unclenched a fist it had been holding for too long. I could feel it in the way patrols carried themselves, in the way merchants spoke in the markets, even in the way children dared to laugh again without looking over their shoulders. From my office window, the Neutral Hospital stood like a sentinel. It wasn't the tallest building in the city or the most fortified, but it had become a landmark of its own, not for power, but for what it represented. I had seen it under siege and fought to keep it's doors open, and now I watched as Aisha worked to make it something even greater. She had been running herself ragged these past weeks, meetings with alphas, emissaries, covens, and the occasional human diplomat. Every night she came back with the faint scent of ink and parchment clinging to her, exhaustion in her shoulders, and a glint in her eyes that told me she wou