I froze.
Then looked down.
Her hand had found mine.
Not tightly. Not desperately.
Just… real.
Warm.
My skin tingled where we touched, that familiar burst of mate bond magic whispering up my arm. My heart tried to break free from my ribs. I looked at her, and she gave me a small, tentative smile—barely there, almost frightened of itself—and asked, “Which way?”
I blinked. It took me a second to process her words.
Right. The forest. That’s why we were here.
I swallowed hard and gave a small nod. “This way,” I murmured, my voice rougher than I meant it to be. Like gravel and need.
And then we walked. Hand in hand.
Through the moonlit trail behind the training grounds, into the woods that wrapped like a silver shawl around the edges of pack territory. The path was blooming already—sp
