**Chapter 14: Revealing Scars**
The lodge was quiet at dawn, the kind of quiet that only exists right before the world wakes up and remembers how to hurt.
I stood on the back porch in one of Victor’s flannel shirts, barefoot, coffee cooling in my hands. The mating mark on my neck still throbbed—pleasantly now, like a secret only Victor and I knew. My wolf stretched under my skin, content but alert. She could taste the coming storm on the wind.
Victor came up behind me, arms sliding around my waist, chin resting on my head.
“You’re thinking too loud, Luna,” he murmured.
I leaned back into his warmth. “Just wondering how many more people have to bleed before this ends.”
He turned me gently, cupped my face. “As many as it takes to keep you safe.”
I searched his eyes. “And you? Who keep
