Nicholas’s POV
I found her by instinct.
Not the guards’ directions, not Dan’s reports, not even the clinical logic of hospital layouts. All of that would have been useless if not for the bond—the invisible tether that still pulsed between us, fierce and unrelenting, even after everything. I could feel it tugging at me like a leash, sharp and raw, and I followed it without hesitation.
It wasn’t just her scent. It was the mix of warmth, the faint trace of wild herbs she always carried, the undercurrent of fear and exhaustion that made my wolf restless, hungry, protective. Even the antiseptic couldn’t mask it. I hated it. I craved it.
And there she was.
Standing outside a child’s ward, her back pressed to the wall, shoulders shaking beneath the thin hospital gown. Her head bowed, almost
