ALEX POV
As I made my way back toward the pack house, the peacefulness of the forest began to fade, replaced by the growing tension I could no longer ignore. Time was running out. *And I still didn’t know how the hell I was going to tell Alice.*
As I walked back toward the pack house, the unease in my gut only grew stronger. The run had helped, sure, but it wasn’t enough. It was like trying to put out a wildfire with a bucket of water—briefly satisfying, but the flames still roared in the distance. Leo was calmer, but I could feel him prowling just beneath the surface, waiting for something, anything, to go wrong.
The trees began to thin as I approached the edge of the forest, the glow from the pack house spilling through the branches like a beacon. The familiar sound of voices drifted
