#Chapter 186 – A Matter of Time

Asher Scouts knelt in the dirt before me, heads bowed, blood still drying on their skin. I could taste their failure, the weakness and incompetence, and it curdled the taste in my throat. “You had her.” My voice cracked like a whip, dangerously quiet but sharp enough to make the males flinch. “You had her in your grasp. And yet,” I paced slowly before them, boots grinding into the earth. “you return to me empty-handed. Again.” No one dared answer. They stared at the ground, shoulders tight, waiting for my claws. My rage only burned hotter. “Do you know what it cost me to put you here? To give you weapons, shelter, purpose? And in return you can’t even leash one broken she-wolf? One.” A murmur rose at the back, some fool trying to explain. I silenced him with a growl, claws flashing in his direction. “Don’t waste breath on excuses.” The silence deepened, brittle as ice. I moved faster than thought, seizing one of the scouts by the throat. His eyes went wide, hands fumb