The air in Velmore had turned sharp that night, the kind that bit at exposed skin and carried whispers of danger on the wind. The woods beyond the settlement were alive with sounds—branches creaking, wolves shifting restlessly in their dens, and something darker moving just out of sight.
Lyra stood at the edge of the clearing, her breath fogging in the cold, her palms damp despite the chill. Behind her, three sets of footsteps closed in, each carrying a weight that pressed on her chest until she could hardly breathe.
Kael. Darius. Orion.
The fates must have been laughing, tangling her life into knots she couldn’t undo.
“Why were you with him?” Kael’s voice sliced through the night first, low but edged like a blade. His eyes burned silver beneath the moonlight, his wolf so close to the
