Lyla had never felt the forest like this before.
Its voice wasn’t just a whisper carried by the wind or a shiver through the trees. It was inside her now woven into her thoughts, humming beneath her skin. Every rustling leaf, every shifting root, every breath of the earth pulsed through her veins.
It was overwhelming. It was exhilarating.
It was terrifying.
She sat on the edge of the pack’s clearing, staring at her hands. They looked the same, but she could feel something different, a connection, a presence, something ancient stirring beneath the surface.
Eli knelt beside her, his golden eyes filled with quiet concern. “You okay?”
She exhaled. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Figured.”
He didn’t push her for more, and she was grateful. There was too much she didn’t understand yet.
