ARIA
We traveled for ten long hours up the mountain and never crossed paths with a single wolf. Not a scent. Not a sound. The quiet pressed in the whole way. The moment we finally stopped, the shift rolled off me and left me standing in my human skin again, cold settling fast into my bones.
I shivered hard. My wolf had enjoyed the freedom too much. Every time she stayed out that long, pulling her back felt slower and rougher, like she resisted just to remind me she could.
Liora shifted beside me and we dressed without speaking. The silence felt heavy but familiar. She dug through the pack and pulled out the small jar of cream, then nodded toward my knee. “It’s aching again, isn’t it? You should have let him break it. It would’ve healed the right way.”
A fallen log sat nearby, half-ro
