Chapter 41

• Everywhere she looked, it felt as though the world was shifting around her. The forest seemed to grow quieter, the air thicker with tension. Even the wolves in the pack moved with more urgency, their eyes flicking nervously to the sky, as if they, too, could feel that something was coming. And what was more unsettling was the silence from the elders. They had always been a guiding force in the pack, but now, it was as though they were waiting for something. Waiting for her to make a decision.
• Her thoughts were interrupted when Damien found her in the garden one evening, her fingers trailing lightly over the leaves of the plants as she tried to find a moment of peace in the midst of the chaos.
• “Elara,” he called softly, stepping into the garden, his presence as commanding as ever. The way he moved through the trees, so effortlessly, so at ease, made her heart race in a way she didn’t fully understand. He was always in control. Always strong. But the vulnerability she had seen in him days ago still lingered in his eyes.