Mara
We finally went hunting.
The moment I shifted into my grey wolf form and sprinted into the woods of Riverfall, something inside me loosened. The wind slicing through my fur, the scent of wet earth, pine, and the quiet hush of running water—it was everything I needed. I wasn’t out here to hunt. I was here to breathe. To remember who I was outside of obligation and arranged marriages.
Lucian’s black wolf form ran alongside mine—huge, commanding, silent. There was something noble about the way he moved. He didn’t charge. He didn’t dominate. He matched my pace.
We found a deer in the clearing. Cornered it. And just when I expected the lunge, the snap of teeth, the blood—Lucian pulled back. So did I.
And we let it go.
I blinked in disbelief.
Darian and Rowan would have killed it wit
