ADAM
I sat beside the bed and watched her breathe.
The room had gone quiet after the priest and doctor left, the incense fading into something softer, something almost intimate. The only sound was Sage's steady inhale and exhale, the faint rustle of sheets when she shifted.
I lowered myself slowly onto the chair near the bed, then found I couldn't stay there. Restlessness drove me closer, until I was perched on the edge, elbows on my knees, hands clasped so tightly my knuckles whitened.
Could it be? Could my wolf be right all this time?
The question slid through my mind like a blade, fanning the flames of restlessness within me.
Could it be? Could it really be? Oh gods…
Could Sage be the one I had been circling all these years without knowing it? Could she be the answer to a longing that had never truly gone quiet, no matter how hard I tried to bury it beneath duty and conquest and crowns?
