Like there was an echo where there shouldn't be. A shadow moving beneath the surface of her skin that didn't belong to her. A presence that felt simultaneously familiar and utterly alien.
Dakota stood in front of the bathroom mirror at 3 AM, unable to sleep, staring at her reflection with growing unease.
The bruises on her face had faded to yellow-green, nearly gone. The split lip had healed cleanly. Externally, she looked almost normal.
But inside...
Inside, something was deeply, fundamentally wrong.
She pressed her hand to her chest, where the mate bond with Kade lived beneath her skin. Normally it glowed with steady warmth—silver and gold intertwined, pulsing gently in time with their heartbeats.
Now there were shadows threaded through it.
Dark wisps that hadn't been there before. Black tendrils that seemed to move independently, crawling through the silver-gold like ink spreading through water.
And beneath it all, she could *feel* something.
Someone.
