Ember woke with fire under her ribs.
Not pain—not exactly—but heat, coiled and restless, like embers stirred by an unseen breath. Her heart beat too fast, her lungs pulling air in shallow bursts as though she’d been running.
She hadn’t.
The room was still dark, dawn barely brushing the edge of the curtains. The packhouse slept around her, steady and calm, and yet her body felt… wrong.
Vespera stirred inside her.
You feel it too, Ember murmured silently.
Her wolf did not answer immediately.
That alone set her on edge.
When Vespera finally lifted her head, the sensation was wary rather than alarmed. Something is pulling, she admitted. Not calling. Pulling.
Ember swallowed and pushed herself upright in bed.
The bond.
Or what she had been calling a bond.
She pressed her fingers to
