Ella's POV
The trees swallowed us whole.
The deeper we went, the more the forest felt alive. Not in the comforting way that a pack's territory should feel — but in that suffocating hush, where the wind itself seemed to be holding its breath. Even Remo was silent beside me, boots crunching over brittle leaves and old bones buried beneath centuries of decay.
He hadn't wanted to come.
He'd growled when I woke him in the dead of night, dragging him from the warmth of our bed — our bed — to tell him I needed to go back to the ruins. That I needed him with me. He hadn't argued, not in words. But the look in his eyes was sharp as a blade.
Now, his presence at my side was both shield and threat — the echo of that beast under his skin, the monster he always swore would hurt me if I got too cl
