Liam’s POV
I slipped through the underbrush just before moonrise, heart pounding so loudly I was sure Leila would hear it from her hiding place. The forest was quiet, the only sounds the soft whisper of wind through pines and the distant rush of the river. My boots sank into moss and fallen leaves, and I kept low, senses reaching for any sign of movement. Every rustle could be Sebastian’s shadow-wolves or worse, his spies watching the trails.
But my mind was on Leila. Since that night in the cave, since I had marked her and the spell that bound her mind to Sebastian had finally cracked, every moment apart had felt like a torment. I had carried her scent in my memories, and felt her wolf’s heartbeat in my own chest. Yet I dared not ask her to stay away from Sebastian’s manse; she had to
