Zane~
The silence in the room was deceptive.
It wasn't the kind of silence that brings peace—it was the kind that crackled, alive with tension and fire and something deeper. Ancient. My heart was pounding so loudly, I was sure Natalie could hear it from across the room. She stood tall, proud and ferocious, like a storm made flesh, her voice still echoing in the air like the aftermath of thunder.
"I want Darius branded," she had said. Calm, unshaking. But her words were laced with something dark, something I understood too well—vengeance wrapped in blood.
I hadn't been able to take my eyes off her. My shy Natalie—the same girl who once stammered when asking for a glass of water, who curled up like a frightened doe when we first met—was gone. She stood before my father like a queen demanding justice, and damn it, I had never been prouder.
