JAKE POV
Lab rat or shared?
Neither option sat well with me.
The discussion from earlier still echoed in my mind like claws scraping stone. The others thought they were being rational — practical even — but all I heard was the same thing repeated in different forms.
Ownership.
Control.
Access.
They talked about Astrid like she was territory to be negotiated, not a living wolf sitting upstairs trying to understand a world that had forgotten how her body even worked.
My jaw tightened.
She is mine.
The thought came naturally — dangerously natural — and I didn't bother correcting it.
Because it wasn't entirely wrong.
My scouts found her.
My wolves discovered the impossible.
For decades, my region in the North had been the quietest, the most disciplined. We had fewer rogues, fewer conflicts, better coordination. I trained my wolves to observe before acting.
And yet — the one time patience mattered most — they failed.
