Lilith couldn’t breathe.
Not in the clearing. Not surrounded by wolves. Not with ‘mate’ words echoing in her skull, repeating like a curse she couldn’t shut out.
He gave up the chance to build his life with his mate…
Mate.
Her vision blurred. Her chest tightened. The world around her spun wildly, smoke, blood, the shattered earth, too loud, too heavy.
“No,” she whispered, backing up once, twice, her pulse tripping into a frantic, uneven rhythm. “No, no, no—”
She didn’t remember turning. She didn’t remember running.
Her body simply moved, as though pure survival instinct seized her. One moment she was standing in the ruins of a battlefield, and the next she was sprinting headlong into the woods, branches clawing at her arms, lungs burning.
The night swallowed her whole.
“Lilith!”
