Ariane:
I finished packing in a haze, my hands trembling as I shoved clothes into the bag. Every motion felt wrong like I was packing up a life I was never meant to have or perhaps one that had never really belonged to me at all.
My fingers brushed over small items—mementos of my life in the Silverfang pack—and I hesitated, but only for a moment.
There was no turning back now. I couldn't.
I heard Varek's footsteps behind me before I saw him; his presence was an inevitable storm that settled in the room with an almost eerie calm. When he spoke, his voice was still as dark and detached as earlier, yet there was something softer in how he addressed me now.
"Are you ready?" His words held no warmth but weren't as cold as they could have been. He'd already made it clear that I was his—hi
