HUNTER POV
I was scared as hell.
I’d faced rogue wolves in the woods. I’d trained with blood on my hands and frost in my lungs. I’d taken beatings and given worse. But nothing—nothing - had ever terrified me like the look in Lyra’s eyes when she said she needed to talk.
Not a casual “we need to talk,” the kind you throw around before a grocery list or an argument over burnt toast.
No—this was the kind of talk that changes things.
The kind that strips you down to your bones and leaves you raw. The kind that splits the air between two people and decides what they are—or what they’ll never be.
I reached for her hand without thinking. Her fingers were cold, trembling slightly. I closed mine around them, holding tight like I could anchor her here—like I could stop her from floating away,
