Chapter 22: Toward Dawn
Kaia’s POV
Crossing the border should have felt like freedom.
Instead, it felt like stepping into the jaws of something vast and unseen.
The instant we passed into Stormbane land, the oppressive weight of Garret’s Alpha-command dissolved like smoke in the wind. My lungs expanded for the first time in days, maybe years. Yet the relief was short-lived, chased quickly by a different kind of weight—older, heavier. The ground thrummed beneath Thorne’s paws, and the air itself shifted, charged, as if the land recognized him.
As if it recognized me.
The forest deepened, shadows stretching like watchful eyes. I pressed tighter against Thorne’s midnight-blue fur, clinging to the steady rhythm of his stride. Each breath of his heat should have anchored me, but my pulse
