Elara’s POV
The forest changed the moment he said it.
We’re not alone.
The air thickened, pressing against my skin as if the night itself had drawn a breath and refused to release it. Every sound sharpened at once. The soft crunch of snow beneath distant paws. The whisper of wind threading through branches. Even my own heartbeat felt too loud, too exposed in the silence that followed.
I didn’t move.
Neither did Kael.
But everything about him shifted.
His body stilled in a way that wasn’t calm. It was controlled. Every muscle drawn tight beneath his skin, every sense sharpened toward something I couldn’t yet see. The warmth that had existed between us only seconds ago didn’t disappear. It changed. Turned into something edged with danger.
His head tilted slightly, listening.
Then hi
