( Aria's POV )
The fire had died sometime before dawn, leaving only the soft glow of embers and the faint scent of smoke clinging to our skin. Outside, the forest was still. The storm had washed everything clean , the leaves, the air, even the sky. It was too quiet, the kind of quiet that makes your instincts ache.
Kael stirred beside me, breath steady against my shoulder. His warmth still lingered, but the man who had held me through the night was gone the moment his eyes opened. The Alpha had returned. I saw it in the set of his jaw, the way his body went tense before he even rose.
“They’ll regroup,” he said, scanning the treeline. His voice was gravel, low and certain. “No one lets prey slip twice.”
I pushed myself up, pulling his cloak tighter around my shoulders. “Then maybe we s
