Ayla's POV
I shifted back to human inside the cave, shivering briefly as the cold found my skin again.
I dressed quickly, pulling on the clothes I'd left folded in the corner, then rubbed warmth back into my arms and looked around at the small space I'd spent months making livable.
The old scuff marks on the stone from last winter. The mattress that sagged in the exact spot where I always slept. A wooden crate doing its best impression of a table, a few candles, and books stacked with more care than anything else I owned. And in the corner, my box—small, battered, holding everything that actually mattered.
Each thing had its own story. The scratchy blue blanket bought with café tips from my first week. The paperback I'd pulled from the lost and found because nobody claimed it and it se
