KAEL'S POV
The pack had gone white with the storm—then black with the silence that followed it.
For a heartbeat, I thought I'd slipped back into the Hollow. The air felt too thin, the cold too sharp, like it had been stripped of everything but sound and heartbeat. Then I heard it—hers. Rapid, uneven, burning through the snow as if trying to keep both of us alive.
Ayla.
I turned my head and found her face above mine, pale against the bleeding sky. Her lips moved, shaping my name like a prayer and a curse at once. And something moved between us—an invisible current, humming under my skin.
That's when I felt it.
Her power wasn't just touching me. It was inside me. Every pulse in my veins came from her. Every breath I stole was one she lost.
"Stop," I rasped. My voice was raw, cracking against the cold. "You're bleeding yourself dry."
Her fingers clutched my wrist. "I can't stop it—"
"Then I'll stop it."
