Silence became her sanctuary.
And her prison.
Aria stood at the edge of the territory long before dawn broke, her figure motionless against the fading night. The air was cold, sharp against her skin, but she barely felt it. The wind moved through her hair, whispering secrets she no longer trusted herself to hear.
Behind her… was everything she loved.
Her pack.
Her home.
Kael.
In front of her… nothing.
And that was exactly why she chose it.
“I can’t stay,” she whispered into the emptiness, her voice hollow, stripped of the strength it once carried so effortlessly.
No one answered.
Because no one was there.
That was the point.
Aria closed her eyes briefly, steadying her breath as the memory of the clearing replayed in her mind—the way Kael’s claws had glinted in the moonlight, t
