Chapter 20

Alina’s arrival at the palace gates was anything but quiet. The heavy iron doors, carved with the snarling faces of wolf deities, stood ajar, and through them she glimpsed Alpha Killan’s broad back as he paced the flagstone courtyard. The late afternoon light strained between the battlements, casting long, restless shadows across the marbled ground. Alina slid down in her seat, chest heaving, as the car’s engine idled. Her fingers trembled on the door handle. She’d been gone for five hours—an hour longer than the lie she’d spun. Her supposed “thirty-minute drive” to a routine checkup at her doctor’s office had proven a convenient alibi…until now.

The door swung open with a metallic groan. Killan straightened, his fierce gaze snapping toward the vehicle. Alina stepped out, knees unsteady. Before she could speak, she heard the soft scrape of the passenger door open