The ache in her limbs had dulled to a persistent throb by the time Rian laced up her boots again, the scent of pine salve still faint on her skin. Her ribs protested each breath, and her wrapped chest felt like iron bands tightening with every heartbeat—but none of it compared to the dread curling cold in her stomach.
Shifting class.
Combat had been brutal. Vulnerable. Painful. But this? This was dangerous. This was exposure wrapped in protocol and tradition—an expectation to strip bare not just her body, but her very essence.
And she couldn’t do it.
Her wolf was no snarl-chested brute. No lean, muscled predator with a masculine gait. She was graceful with sleek lines, sharp with intelligence but undeniably feminine in form. To reveal her would be to shatter the lie Mira and she had bu
