“No.”
But the denial sounded weaker this time.
Because another memory had just surfaced from the depths of his mind.
An old scroll.
Ancient teachings he had studied years ago in the royal archives.
Lycans had always been meticulous record keepers, preserving knowledge about their species across generations.
And somewhere within those dusty texts—
There had been something about heat cycles.
Something rare.
Something unusual.
Caleb’s mind strained to recall the exact wording.
The memory surfaced slowly, like ink rising through water.
A passage about bond-triggered heat.
A phenomenon that appeared only under specific circumstances.
When a she-wolf encountered the one her soul recognized as mate.
When proximity awakened instincts too powerful to ignore.
When the bond itself dem
