Elara’s POV
Unit 304 was a rusted metal mouth set in a long, concrete throat of identical doors. The industrial storage sector was a cemetery of so many forgotten lives, silent under the hostile glow of buzzing security lights. The air was filled with the scent of diesel, rain, and dust. Lucian walked beside me not just as an ordinary man, but as an extension of the shadows themselves, his whole being listening, scenting the air for the slightest trace of ambush, of wrongness, of wolf.
I clenched my hands around the cold, simple key, trembling violently. The metal felt alien, a skeleton key to a past I’d spent years trying to outrun. Lucian’s steadier, larger hand covered mine, holding it firmly, his warmth a shocking contrast. Finally, we were able to get it to turn…..the key in the stu
