Modric’s POV
“Give me a reason to come back.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
Mary Ann stood in front of me with my coat still wrapped around her shoulders. The council room was dim, lit only by the lamps burning low over the evidence scattered across the tables. Outside, Ironclaw slept beneath the final hours of darkness.
She did not answer immediately.
Her eyes searched my face, and I felt the guarded movement of her wolf through the bond.
Hope rose inside me despite every warning I had given myself.
I should not have asked.
Mary Ann had already told me what cooperation meant.
The pack.
The alliance.
Nothing more.
Still, some selfish part of me wanted one word that belonged only to us. One promise I could carry into the arena when Darius struck my injured sh
