Chapter 22: You Came Back

Kara The small apartment I occupied on the fringes of the human city felt like a tomb constructed of beige wallpaper and flickering fluorescent lights. I stood by the window, watching the humans below scurry like ants, oblivious to the monstrous shadow-play occurring in the alleys just a few miles away. In this world, I was just another face in the crowd, a girl with a mediocre job and a quiet life, but beneath the surface, the wolf was pacing with a restless, hungry energy. Narah was no longer content with the silence; she had tasted the possibility of war, and more importantly, she had tasted the presence of Lucien BlackThorn. I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, trying to reconcile the woman who worked a shift at the local library with the woman who had stood in a dark alley and bargained for an empire. The alliance with Lucien was no longer just a strategic necessity; it had become an anchor that held me to my true identity even as I pretended to be human. Every morning, I