Rowan
The hospital hallway was too quiet. Too sterile. Too much like the guilty silence inside my own head.
I'd just left Nessa's room—left her sleeping, finally, after hours of restless tossing and quiet whimpers that tore at something deep in my chest. The nurses had kicked me out, said she needed rest without someone hovering. But I couldn't go far. Couldn't leave the building. My wolf wouldn't let me.
Something had shifted when I'd started taking care of her. When I'd seen how broken she really was.
And that terrified me more than I wanted to admit.
I pushed through the hospital's side entrance, needing air, needing space to think. The night was cold and sharp, biting at my skin through my thin shirt. I welcomed it. Needed something to ground me, to pull me out of the spiraling thoughts that had been plaguing me for days.
"Rough night?"
The voice came from the shadows near the corner of the building, smooth and knowing. I turned, immediately on alert.
