POV: Luther
The nights were the worst.
Darkness no longer brought rest. It brought Recce.
She is ours. His voice rumbled through my skull, restless, wild, relentless. Where is she? Why is she not here?
Every night, the same. His pacing scraped against my bones, his claws dragged down my insides. His howl rattled the cage of my ribs until I woke drenched in sweat, heart hammering like I’d run to the ends of the earth.
Sometimes I swore I smelled her—lavender soap, pine smoke clinging to her skin. Sometimes I heard her whisper—Tomorrow, they’ll see I’m yours. The echo broke me worse than any blade could.
I threw myself into training to silence him. Dawn to dusk, I bled on the sparring floor. Wooden dummies shattered beneath my fists. Warriors staggered from the ring bruised and broken,
