Eli
The camp is too quiet when we return.
Smoke drifts from the lodge chimney, curling pale against the night sky.
Wolves move in low murmurs, eyes sliding away from mine.
The mark throbs like a second heartbeat, phantom teeth that never quite release their grip
I can still feel the weight of Jace’s silence as he peeled off toward the lodge. His broad shoulders tense like he wanted to say something but didn’t dare.
I stand there longer than I need to, watching my own breath fog in the air, staring at the black treeline as if I might see a way out in the shifting shadows.
And then I feel him.
It’s not sound, not exactly. It’s the way the air tightens, the way the hairs at the back of my neck stand up before my ears catch the soft rhythm of boots on packed earth. That bond hums, a
