I didn’t realize I had taken a step forward until my leg gave a warning.
Pain surged through my knee, forcing me to stop just short of the clearing’s edge. My fingers curled into my palm, nails pressing into my skin as I contained the reaction, refusing to let it show more than it already had.
The words behind me still lingered, a quiet reminder that I wasn’t alone in this space.
Two wolves were refusing to leave.
Of course, they weren’t leaving.
Something tightened low in my chest, heavier than relief and quieter than fear, settling into a space I didn’t want to examine too closely.
I moved anyway.
“Stay,” the cloaked woman said.
The ground beneath my feet felt unreliable, not because it shifted, but because I wasn’t steady enough to trust it. Every step reminded me how much stren
