Ridah’s POV
I didn’t shift on the way back.
Walking hurt. Every step sent a dull throb through my ribs where Kael had caught me, and my hands were still shaking from holding back at the end. But shifting would mean giving the curse room to breathe, and I wasn’t ready for that yet.
The pack smelled me before I reached the border.
I felt it in the way the scouts went still, in the way the bond flared hot and sudden through me—Forsaken. He was moving before I was halfway through the treeline, cutting through the trees like he didn’t care who saw him run.
He stopped when he saw me.
No words. Just his hands on my shoulders, checking me over like he could undo what happened by touch alone.
“You’re bleeding,” he said. Voice rough.
“It’s not mine,” I said. Most of it, anyway.
His ey
