Page 9

For weeks, it was quiet.

Almost too quiet.

I trained every morning with Mira and the Crescent Fang warriors. My body grew stronger, sharper. I learned how to fall without fear, how to strike with purpose. The others began to nod at me in passing, then speak. Then smile.

I wasn't just surviving anymore.

I was belonging.

And Kael-he stayed true to his word. He gave me space, but not distance. He'd sit with me during meals, offer calm conversation when the world got too loud, walk beside me when my thoughts felt heavy.

The bond between us no longer felt like a fire I had to fear.

It felt like a flame I could warm my hands by.

And for a while... it was enough.

Until I smelled him.

?

It happened during a late patrol.

Mira and I were running the northern border trails, just outside the edge of the ridge, when a gust of wind caught me by surprise.

It hit me like a punch to the gut.

Cedar and smoke.

Ashmoon.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Mira turned sharply. "What is it?"

I didn't answer. Couldn't. My heart was beating too fast, the old panic rising in my throat like bile.

"Someone's been here," I finally said. "Someone from my old pack."

Mira's eyes narrowed. "You sure?"

"I'd know that scent anywhere."

She growled low in her throat and took off running. I followed, limbs shaking-not from fear exactly, but from something worse:

Dread.

It didn't take long to find the tracks. Deep pawprints. Fresh. Headed south. Headed inward.

They didn't cross our border.

But they came close.

Too close.

Mira turned to me, her expression cold. "You tell Kael?"

"I haven't yet."

"Do it. Tonight."

?

When I reached Kael's quarters, I hesitated in the doorway.

I didn't want to bring Ashmoon into this place.

Not into the only home I'd ever truly chosen.

But when Kael looked up at me from the desk-his dark eyes calm but alert-I realized I didn't have to protect him from the truth.

He was ready for it.

"There's someone from Ashmoon watching the border," I said.

His expression didn't change, but the air around him shifted.

"How close?"

"Close enough to make me feel sick."

He stood slowly. "Then it's time we stop pretending they're not coming."

I blinked. "You think they're here for me?"

"I think some bonds break louder than others," he said quietly. "And some wolves don't let go."

A chill ran down my spine.

Jace.

?

That night, I barely slept.

Because deep in the forest-past the trees, beyond the border-I could feel it.

A familiar presence. Watching.

Waiting.

And somewhere inside me, my wolf growled for the first time in weeks.

Not in fear.

In warning.