KAEL
I woke up with a jolt, breath short, heart beating like war drums. It wasn’t the kind of jolt that came from a bad dream, no, this was something real. I felt a pressure, a shift, an echo of pain that didn’t belong to me.
My chest jacked up, the air felt too thin. My claws were already coming out of my fingers. I hadn’t fully shifted, but I was close.
I sat up in the dark, scanning the shadows of the cabin like something would leap from them.
Nothing moved, but I felt it, something was wrong.
She’s hurting, my mate.
I couldn’t explain how I knew, because the bond between us hadn’t been nurtured.
One night! That was all we had. One night, when time stopped and the entire world felt like it moved on her breath. And then, she was gone, like fog before dawn, leaving behind nothing
