Kaia — POV
The forest swallowed us whole, paws pounding against earth still wet with blood — but even in flight, I felt it: the heat inside me, no longer silent, no longer sleeping.
Thorne’s wolf was massive beneath me, each stride a thunderclap that shook the ground. His fur was dark as midnight, streaked with silver that caught the moonlight as he ran. I clung to him, my fingers buried in the thick ruff at his neck, and the wind tore through my hair like it was trying to strip the dungeon’s stink from me.
For the first time in years, I wasn’t stumbling under chains. I wasn’t crawling in the dirt, or bowing to survive.
I was flying.
Every bound carried me further from the walls that had suffocated me, every breath a gasp of air I thought I’d forgotten how to take. The world rushed pa
