Chapter 153 - Mating ritual

The evening settled over Raaya Villa like a heavy velvet cloak, the rain finally easing into a soft mist that clung to the gardens and turned the mountain paths slick. Torches had been lit along the corridors, their golden light flickering against the pale stone and casting long shadows that danced like restless spirits. Jake sat in the private solar off the main hall, a room he had claimed as his own for moments like this—quiet strategy, quiet reckoning. A low fire crackled in the hearth, the scent of pine and cedar smoke mingling with the faint trace of the evening meal still lingering in the air. Maps of the high passes and the surrounding clans lay spread across the heavy oak table, weighted down by daggers and goblets of dark wine.