I was terrified. The world around me had dissolved into a blurred smear of gray stone and judgmental faces. I reached inward, desperate for the familiar hum of my wolf, the one presence that had always been with me in the dark.
Help me, I whispered into the void of my own mind. Please, tell me what to do.
There was nothing. No growl of defiance, no whimper of pain. My wolf was silent, retreating so far into the shadows of my soul that I feared she had died the moment Ethan spoke those words. I was alone. Truly, utterly alone.
But then, something shifted. It wasn't my wolf, but something deeper—a strange, shimmering instinct buried in the marrow of my bones. It didn't speak in words, but in a steady, rhythmic pulse that pushed against my ribs. Get up, it commanded. Listen to him.
Throug
