Elara's POV
The woods were thicker than I remembered, or maybe I was just more aware of them this time, moving through them alone with nothing but the sound of my own footsteps and the occasional shift of branches overhead.
The light came through in patches, broken up by the canopy, and somewhere in the distance something moved through the undergrowth and went still again.
I made it maybe ten minutes before I stopped walking and made the second decision of the afternoon.
"I shifted."
My wolf came forward easily, that familiar rush of senses sharpening all at once, the world opening up in ways it never did in human form.
Smell, sound, the feel of the ground under my paws, everything more immediate and more vivid than anything human senses could pick up.
The woods that had felt de
