Kael's POV
Nightfang Territory - Border Patrol
The scent stops me cold.
I'm riding along the eastern border, my wolf restless beneath my skin, when it hits me. Faint, faded, but unmistakable. A scent I haven't encountered in months, but my body remembers it instantly.
Ariyah.
I pull my horse to a halt, my heart hammering. The wind carries the scent from the forest, and I turn toward it, my wolf howling inside me.
Find her. Find her now.
But she's not here. The scent is old, weeks old, lingering on the trees and the earth like a ghost.
I dismount and follow it anyway.
The trail leads me to the border crossing, the same place she passed through four months ago. I stand there, breathing in the remnants of her presence, and something inside me cracks.
She was here.
She stood on thi
