AYLA – POV
They didn't follow us immediately.
The Seers stood frozen at the edge of the burned circle, their eyes full of prophecies unraveling. I didn't need to stay and hear the whispers. I knew what they would say. "The Luna reborn." "The cursed line wakes." "She is not ours."
Good.
Let them fear what they could not leash.
Kael walked a step behind me as we left the grove, every footfall of his deliberate, quiet, watchful. He hadn't touched me again since the circle, and I knew why. Something had changed. The kiss by the moonwell had burned bright, but this—this was the aftermath.
I was no longer just Ayla.
And Kael, gods bless him, was waiting for me to choose what I would become.
Back in the camp, the air shifted. The pack was awake. No songs. No laughter. Just eyes.
Watching me.
