The forest floor blurred beneath Sera's paws.
She ran without direction, without purpose—just the desperate, animal need to move, to outrun the agony that had carved itself into her chest where Thomas's bond had been. Her wolf keened, a sound that belonged to no living creature, only to those who had lost half their soul.
Talia ran beside her, her ginger coat blazing like fire against the darkness, Sera's gray fur matching the storm clouds overhead. They matched stride for stride. Not leading and not following. Just there. Present in the way only someone who understood this particular devastation could be.
They'd been running for hours. The Obsidian Ridge guards Lucian had sent trailed at a respectful distance, shadows among the trees. Protecting without intruding.
Sera's wolf finally
