Chapter 20
Branches snagged her sleeves. Thorns scraped her arms. The once-familiar woods felt like a labyrinth now—foreign, endless, alive.
Lena moved in a daze, pain rippling through every step as her body ached from the fall, the cold, the fear. Her legs were stiff, scraped and swollen. Her hands throbbed. But it was nothing compared to the weight in her chest.
That growl.
Those eyes.
That *thing.*
Her thoughts circled like vultures, unable to land on anything solid. The word from the message clawed its way through her skull.
**Wolf.**
Was that what it was?
Was that what had killed her father?
She stumbled forward, blinking against the late afternoon sun slicing through the thinning trees. Her breath came in short, ragged bursts. Every rustle in the brush made her flinch. But
