Kaden ran.
He didn’t remember deciding to. One moment he was deep within Silvercrest territory, tension coiled tight beneath his skin since the wards had flared, and the next he was moving at full speed, breath tearing from his lungs, boots barely touching the ground.
His wolf was in chaos.
Her.
The word echoed through him, raw and insistent, as if it had been waiting years to be spoken aloud again.
When he broke through the last line of trees and saw the gathered warriors, the scorched warding stones, and—standing at the center of it all—
Aria—
He stopped so abruptly it felt like his heart slammed into his ribs.
Alive.
That was his first thought. Alive and real and not another cruel vision conjured by guilt and sleepless nights.
Moonlight clung to her like it belonged there, sil
