She watched us both—head moving between us, weight shifting—and then settled back onto her haunches as the door clicked shut behind him.
Kael pushed forward before she could leap.
Now I could feel her fury. Hot and total and entirely justified.
She backed away, began to pace—tight, controlled semi-circles, never taking her eyes from us. Her gaze moved once to the door as we heard Cuán leave the building. Then back.
Kael was trying to reach her. It didn’t always work with rogues or lone wolves—they ran on different frequencies, their bonds to pack thought worn thin or severed entirely.
We didn’t move closer. We didn’t speak.
Then Kael did something I hadn’t seen him do in years.
He dropped.
Fully, deliberately, without ceremony—onto his side, belly exposed, one black paw flopping against the floor. An offering. The oldest signal we had.
We could smell how fine she was. Her wolf was larger than I’d expected—still small against an Alpha’s frame, but there was a density to her, a presence that filled the room in a way her size alone didn’t account for. Those ears. Even flat they were—
She took one step closer.
Paused.
Sniffed.
Kael dragged a paw slowly across his face.
The ears moved. Fractionally. The aggression in them shifting into something less certain.
She growled again—low this time, the sharp edge gone out of it.
Another step. Another sniff.
Kael rolled onto his back for good measure, hind legs bumping the leg of the dining chair before he flopped back onto his side and stayed there, patient as stone.
We waited.
And then she lay down.
Not submission—her head stayed high, ears up and alert, pale paws stretched out in front of her. A de-escalation. An acknowledgement. The difference between I yield and I’m listening and she knew it as well as we did.
I’m Kael.
Silence.
I’m Bad Girl.
The sound of her voice inside our head stopped everything. She was probably the only wolf who could carry that name like a signature of who she was.
Our heart rate spiked before either of us could manage it. After everything—the conference room, the hospital, the footage, the weeks of circling—to hear her there, clear and present and real—
I thought of every rule I’d followed. Every decision made with the pack first. Every year of patience and protocol and doing what an Alpha was supposed to do.
And here was our potential mate. A rebel from the ground up.
We would never harm you.
A beat.
