AYLA – POV
I didn't know how long I ran.
Long enough for the bond to fade back into a whisper.
Long enough for my lungs to burn and my legs to give out beneath me.
When I collapsed, it wasn't fear that dropped me.
It was the weight of something I couldn't carry anymore.
The truth.
The bond.
The eyes of two males who would burn the world for me… and the part of me that didn't know if I wanted to be caught or left behind.
The grove was hidden between two cliffs, hollowed by time and cloaked in silence.
The trees were older than language. Moonlight filtered through in silver shafts, pooling around me like a cradle.
I laid my head on the roots of a twisted ash tree.
And the world fell away.
The First Luna wore no crown.
No silk.
No collar.
She stood barefoot in blood-soaked grass, her eyes pale silver, her body marked in glowing runes that pulsed with power. She wasn't gentle.
She was terrifying.
Wolves circled her. Some bowed. Some bared teeth.
