Luca’s POV
The forest was eerily silent as we moved through the dense underbrush, our footsteps barely making a sound against the damp earth. The weight of what was coming pressed against my chest like an iron chain. Every step we took carried us closer to the unknown, to whatever remnants of our pack had survived.
Elara’s mother walked beside me, her pace steady despite her age. There was a quiet determination in her movements, a resolve that had not wavered since we left the cave. She had told me she wouldn’t be here much longer, yet she moved as if she carried the strength of a hundred lifetimes.
The sky above was a deep shade of violet, the first hints of dawn stretching across the horizon. It was the perfect time to travel—before the hunters stirred, before the creatures of the nig
