Chapter 16 The Replacement

• The first morning without the ropes felt surreal.
• The coarse bite of the bindings that had left my wrists raw and burning was gone, replaced with nothing but the aching, bruised skin beneath. I sat up slowly, testing my freedom, the cool morning air in the cabin brushing over my skin like a promise of something I hadn’t felt in so long: control.
• Paxton hadn’t been there when I woke. The cabin was still, the quiet almost unsettling. I could hear the faint rustle of wind against the trees outside, the distant murmur of the pack beginning their day.