It was the scent of rain, wild lilies, and the stubborn, fierce spirit that had been haunting my every thought.
I caught her by the scruff of her neck to steady her, my heart hammering against my ribs in a way that had nothing to do with the shift. She was smaller than I last saw her, her fur ruffled and her eyes wide with a mix of shock and desperation.
“Amani! What are you doing here?!” I roared, the words half-human, half-growl as I shifted back fully. “Shift!”
At my order, she scrambled back, her paws sliding on the moss as she returned to her human form, breathless and wild-eyed. She looked like a ghost in the night, her skin pale in the moonlight, but her gaze was a furnace. Still breathtaking, nothing less.
“I was following her,” she gasped, clutching a robe to her chest that sh
