She was here.
Somewhere just beyond the veil. Within reach. place I couldn’t yet reach.
The air between us was heavy, thick like fog. I felt that vibration again, a movement. Each step she took sent a ripple through me.
She wasn’t charging toward me. She didn’t leap with joy or relief.
She hesitated.
Wary. Guarded.
Because she didn’t know me. I was as much a stranger to her as she was to me.
I wanted to call out to her, tell her I’d spent my whole life missing her.
But I didn’t know if she’d understand.
Still, I inched closer-mentally, emotionally-in whatever way I could.
Each breath deepened my anchor to the space, and the fog around us began to stir. The outline of trees shimmered in the distance. Pines. Like the scent in the Moon Hall.
I felt the warmth of Lucian’s hands in mine and struggled to remain grounded, not to slip back into the physical.
What I wanted was here. She was here.
Pale and ghostly, a silhouette half-formed, she prowled the treeline. Watching me. Waiting.
And then-just for a moment-the fog shifted, and her eyes met mine.
Familiar. Feral. Mine.
Something inside me broke open at the sight. A pressure behind my ribs I hadn’t even known I was holding released all at once. The ache, the emptiness-I felt it begin to fill.
And just as the mist began to thin-just as I felt the first tremor of recognition tremble between us-
Bang!
The door slammed open, jolting me out of the trance like a snapped cord.
My eyes flew open. My head turned.
In the doorway stood Kieran.
Frozen.
His gaze locked onto Lucian and me-our hands still clasped, our faces flushed from the trance, from something more than just breathwork.
Kieran’s eyes widened, disbelief cutting sharply across his face. I saw it all in a single second: shock, confusion…and then, something deeper. Something that made the air between us thrum like a struck chord.
And me? I was reeling.
From what I’d just seen, what I’d just felt.
But as the world around me came into focus, I felt that feeling fade, and the fog thickened till it was as solid as a wall.
The delicate ache of my wolf’s presence faltered, then vanished altogether, like she’d turned and run back into the dark.
Gone.
KIERAN’S POV
I was supposed to be watching Celeste train.
I’d agreed to accompany her to her training session at OTS that morning when she’d asked.
Her gaze held that familiar plea, the one that said, ‘Prove you still care!
That, and her appalling statistics that Lucian had shown me, were the reason I was once again at OTS headquarters.
The plan was to keep a respectful distance, show support, maybe give her some pointers if she asked.
But it was one thing to see the numbers; it was another to have a firsthand experience of just how far behind Celeste was in her training.
We hadn’t even made it halfway through warm-ups before I realized she wasn’t focused.
Her eyes weren’t on the course. They were on me.
Her footwork lagged, her form slipped, and her trainer winced more than once when
Celeste nearly missed her mark.
I kept my distance. I didn’t want to overstep with her trainer’s instructions. But the longer I stayed, the more distracted she became-tripping over drills, snapping at her trainer, stealing glances at me like I was the one throwing her off balance.
Eventually, I stepped away. Told her I needed air. The truth was, I couldn’t take the weight of her gaze anymore. I was a distraction she didn’t need right now.
The second I stepped out of the room, the pressure in my chest shifted. Like the air changed density.
I paused in the hallway, rolling my shoulders.
I remembered Lucian’s words, urging me to focus on Celeste and her training. But I didn’t even know where to start with her. How could I help her if she couldn’t even concentrate with me in the same room?
“Oww!” Celeste’s indignant yell floated out into the corridor. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and pushed away from the wall.
I wandered the corridor outside the training halls, heading nowhere in particular. I knew
Sera was somewhere in this building and that knowledge was a curse.
I wondered what she was doing-whatever it was, she was probably performing levels higher than Celeste.
I stamped down the urge to seek her out, to see her. Nothing good would come out of that.
Not after the way we’d left things.
I was about to turn and head back to Celeste’s training room when I froze in my tracks.
It felt like I’d been shot through with a bolt of lightning, freezing me from within.
I felt Ashar-who had been quiet all morning-stir.
Something singed my blood. Like a voice. A whisper. A command.
A sudden, fierce tug beneath my ribs. An awakening.
It wasn’t just instinct. It wasn’t routine alertness or the casual awareness of another wolf in the vicinity. This was primal. Visceral. Intimate.
And… familiar?
My pulse stumbled.
What is that? I thought in confusion.
The pull grew stronger. Ashar surged, growling low in my chest. “Go.”
I turned, following the magnetic pull like I’d been hooked on an invisible thread and reeled forward.
It wasn’t a direction-it was a feeling. A scent, barely there. A heat blooming under my skin, electric. Foreign and familiar all at once.
Ashar went from curious to feral in a heartbeat. I could feel him straining against my mind, pushing against the cage of my body, demanding to move faster, get closer.
And then it hit me-what this strange, overwhelming sensation was.
Mating call.
Ashar snarled and lunged, recognition blazing through him like wildfire. He knew that call.
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