Ahce tightened her grip on the woven basket slung across her shoulder. She had only set out to gather edible roots and bark sap, not to unexpectedly cross paths with her fiancé, someone she had never met yet was bound to her by imperial arrangement.
The forest wind carried the sharp scent of moss and wet leaves, and the soft crunch of twigs under their boots filled the silence between them.
Eros walked half a step behind her, hands clasped behind his back like he was patrolling a battlefield rather than following a girl through the wilderness. His cold expression never changed, but his eyes, sharp, meticulously observant, never left her figure.
Even now, wrapped in simple survival clothes, with a glowing white cub trotting beside her, she moved with a natural calmness that clashed strangely with the chaos he knew she stirred across the empire.
