Chapter 167

Aisha POV Renik blocked the doorway with the same stubbornness I had come to expect from him. Broad shoulders, arms folded tight, his jaw set like stone. “You shouldn’t go,” he said flatly, eyes narrowed as though the weight of his glare alone might hold me in place. I breathed in slowly, pressing my palm against the cool wood of the frame. My wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin. For a moment, I wanted to yield, to let him stand between me and everything I dreaded. But the tremor in my chest wasn’t fear of them anymore, it was fear of myself. Fear of what I would become if I kept letting others cage me in for my own safety. “I’m not asking permission,” I said, my voice quieter than I intended, but sharp enough to cut. His expression flickered, the barest crack in his armor. Renik had sworn to protect me, but sometimes that vow weighed like chains. He saw me as fragile still, as though every shadow might break me. He didn’t understand that I had already been broken and put myself back