MAVERICK
Demi fell asleep less than twenty minutes into the drive, curled in my jacket with the éclair box balanced against her hip. She looked softer asleep. Smaller. Human. Mine, my wolf supplied with dangerous satisfaction. I tightened my grip on the wheel and kept my eyes on the road as Crescent City thinned behind us, all salt air, bakery windows, and streets that had somehow kept her safe before I arrived with fate in my hands. She trusted me enough to sleep where I could reach her. That trust felt heavier than any oath I had ever sworn.
She will be our Luna, my wolf said, not as a question but as a truth already carved into bone. I glanced at Demi’s sleeping face, at the faint crease between her brows even in rest, and felt pride open too quickly into fear. Black Mountain respe
