V E R A L U N A
My breath hitched, heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. I blinked, hoping I was seeing things. But no, the glowing tattoo on Zach’s wrist—the exact same one I’d been staring at on mine—was still there, shimmering under the moonlight. The intricate design, the swirling pattern that I once thought marked me as different, now linked me to him in ways I hadn’t even begun to understand.
“Zach,” I breathed, my voice shaky. “What… what does this mean?”
He didn’t answer right away. His jaw was clenched tight, his whole body tense as he stared at the glowing mark. The pain in his face was unmistakable, like someone had ripped open a wound he had buried deep. “It means…” he finally said, his voice low and rough, “that we are mates, Vera.”
The world felt like it had
