**Kaelen**
Guilt was a familiar weight, constant as gravity, but nothing could have prepared me for the crushing heaviness that settled on my chest as I approached the refugee camp. These were my people—my responsibility—and they were here, displaced and suffering, because of a war I had inadvertently helped trigger.
"You're brooding again," Seraphina said softly beside me, her hand finding mine as we walked the final stretch toward the camp. Even six months pregnant, she radiated strength that I desperately needed.
"I'm not brooding," I replied automatically. "I'm thinking."
She shot me a sideways glance, one eyebrow raised. "Thinking very darkly, then. I can practically see the storm clouds gathering above your head."
I couldn't help the slight upward twitch of my lips. How did she always know? Even before the mate bond had fully formed between us, she had been able to read me better than anyone.
