The moment Lyla took her first step away from the pack, she felt it.
A shift in the air.
A silent severing of something that had bound her to them for as long as she could remember.
It wasn’t just a choice.
It was a point of no return.
The Marked Ones moved ahead of her, their steps silent against the forest floor.
The pack stood behind her, watching.
But they didn’t call for her to stop.
Not even Eli.
Especially not Eli.
Her chest tightened, but she kept walking.
Because if she hesitated now, she wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to keep going.
And she had made her choice.
Even if it tore something inside her apart.
The deeper Lyla walked into the forest, the more alien it became.
The trees twisted unnaturally, their bark black as night, their branches stretching toward t
