Sera's POV
The hour ended too soon.
I felt it slipping away like sand through my fingers—each precious moment with Draven, each breath of freedom, each heartbeat before everything changed. We'd held each other behind that boulder, weeping and clinging and hoping, but hope felt thin against the weight of what waited for us.
We walked back to the table hand in hand, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst from my chest. Draven's grip was firm, steady, unbreakable. Through the bond, I felt his determination—a wall of steel and fire—and his terror, buried deep where the Council couldn't sense it. Terror for me. Terror for the pack. Terror for everything we'd built together.
The mist had thickened while we were gone, swirling around the ancient table like the ghosts of all who'd
