Hope's POV.
My voice is quiet when I finally speak again.
“How did they meet?”
Aarden takes a long breath, eyes distant now, as if he’s seeing it all again — those long-forgotten days when everything was still possible.
“Your father was hunting,” he begins softly. “He and his unit had heard rumors about a rogue wolf lurking near the border of our territory. They came with weapons drawn, fully expecting to find a threat.” His eyes meet mine, steady and full of a pain that feels old and familiar. “But what he found… was her.”
He pauses, as if the memory deserves its silence.
“She wasn’t hiding. She stood there in a clearing, completely calm. And when your father looked into her eyes, he told me he saw something that made him lower his blade.”
“What did he see?” I whisper.
Aarden’s ga
