LUCA
I hadn’t planned to mark Aria.
The plan, if I was honest with myself, had always been clear in my head. It would happen back at pack territory, beneath the open sky, with the elders watching and our parents standing close. It would be ceremonial, deliberate, a public declaration that she was mine, and I was hers, bound not just by instinct but by choice, duty, and honor. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted her to feel celebrated, protected, and seen.
But plans have a way of unraveling when instinct starts shouting.
From the moment I saw her that night, something in my gut had twisted painfully. It wasn’t logic. It wasn’t reason. It was the wolf in me pacing restlessly, claws scraping at the inside of my ribs, whispering one word over and over again.
She’s leaving.
I didn’t know
