Rayna POV
The heat from the council fire still burns in my cheeks as I shove through the ferns and trees beyond the camp border. The voices - Kael’s, Damon’s, all of them - echo in my head, tangled with too many memories and too much shame.
I need out. Just for a moment. Just to breathe.
But the night wraps around me like it remembers. The air is too still. The wind carries the scent of rosemary and pine - the same scent that clung to the borrowed cloak I wore that night. And suddenly, I’m not in this forest anymore.
I’m back there.
Back to the firelit circle. Back to the silence after the word “No” shattered my soul.
“I, Alpha Aiden of the Moonclaw Pack, reject you as my mate.”
The memory slices through me like fresh claws. I feel the bond unravel all over again, the scream that ne
