Dante
She didn’t come.
I waited until the moon dipped low behind the pines, until even the wolves in the distance stopped howling. But Shirley never showed.
I wasn’t surprised.
Still felt like hell.
I rode back with nothing but the engine’s growl for company, that ache in my chest stretching tighter with every mile. It wasn’t just that she ignored my message. It was the way she’d looked at me earlier—like she didn’t know who I was anymore. Like the man she’d started to trust was just another shadow keeping secrets.
Maybe she wasn’t wrong.
Because there was something I still hadn’t told her. Couldn’t. Not yet.
The truth about that mark on her neck.
The rune.
She thought it was a curse.
It wasn’t.
It was a key.
And if Elias got to it first, it would unlock something no wolf coul
