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Blood in the Wilds: 17

Author: Bella-Anne
last update Last Updated: 2025-05-27 00:26:18

Lira (POV)

I wake to cold air and absence. The cot creaks as I sit up, joints stiff from sleep and storm. The fire’s out, nothing left but ash. Kael is gone.

But his scent isn’t.

It’s everywhere.

Fresh. Alive. Still clinging to the blankets, threading through the beams, clinging to my skin. It’s thicker now. Sharper. Not Beta-guarded. Not leashed.

This scent is new.

Or maybe not. Maybe just unmasked.

I stand slowly, stretch the ache from my limbs, and cross to the door. The moment I open it, his scent pulls.

Not like the tether. Not like the bond.

Like instinct.

Like hunger.

The woods are quiet, fog curling low along the ground. I don’t think. I follow. My wolf rises without hesitation, my steps falling into a pattern that’s too easy. The cold doesn’t reach me.

I know where he is. I know how far.

I know it the way wolves know their pack.

No. Not like that.

Draven’s scent had always felt like being hunted.

Kael’s feels like something I’m meant to find.

There’s no command in his scent.
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  • Bloodied Ashes   Rooted in Flame: 3

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