ANMELDENZane"I need you to be my husband," Amara said, and for a second, I actually forgot how to breathe. We were sitting in the dirt under a big oak tree, the smell of damp leaves and old wood all around us. Maren was sitting next to her, already pulling a grey shawl over her head. She looked like the grumpiest grandmother you’ve ever seen in your life. She actually looked like she enjoyed the idea of being old and mean to people."Zane, are you even listening to me?" Amara asked, her voice getting that sharp edge it always has when she thinks I’m daydreaming.I shook my head and gave her my best grin. "I'm always listening, Amara. It’s my best quality, right after my face," I told her."You’re a merchant," she said, ignoring my joke like she always does. "We’re selling medicinal herbs and dried meat. We’re heading north. Bram and Aldric are our helpers. Maren is your mother."Maren snorted at that and adjusted her shawl. "If he’s my son, I should’ve left him in the woods a long time ago f
AldricI didn’t sleep at all after she told me about her father and her mother.The words she said felt like heavy stones sitting at the bottom of my stomach.I just sat there in the dark and looked at the fire until it turned to gray ash.Last night, I told her I wasn’t going anywhere. It was the right thing to say. I didn’t have to think about it or try to make it sound pretty. When she told me Corvus killed her, I felt a part of me click into place. It was a feeling I haven't had in three years. Not since the night Corvus killed Gorin.I was built to protect things. That is what a Beta is. For a long time, I protected Gorin. Then he was gone, and I was just a weapon with no hand to hold it. I stayed sharp, sure. I kept Zane alive. But I didn't have a purpose. Now, looking at the back of Amara’s head as we started the morning march, I knew I had found it. She had been surviving all by herself for nineteen years. That was too long. It was way too long for someone to be that alone."Y
Amara"You look like you finally slept," Sela said, her voice cutting through the quiet morning air.I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was sitting by the small fire, poked at the embers with a stick. I sat up and pulled my blanket around my shoulders. "I did. A little bit.""Good," she said. "You’ve been carrying a lot. It’s about time you let some of it go."I didn’t say anything to that. I just felt the air in my chest. For three lifetimes, breathing had felt like trying to inhale through a heavy wet cloth. This morning, the cloth was still there, but it was dry. It was lighter. I had told Zane and Aldric the truth last night, and the world hadn't ended. I wasn't fixed, but I was different. It was a fact. I didn't need to make a big deal out of it.I stood up and started folding my bedroll. "Where is everyone?""Zane is checking the perimeter," Sela said, watching me. "Aldric is getting water. Bram is thinking.""And Maren?" I asked."She’s around," Sela said. She took a bite
Zane"Then I died the first time," Amara says. She says it like she is telling us what she had for breakfast. The fire is almost out, but nobody moves to fix it because moving might break the air."My parents loved me," she says. Her face gets a little soft for a second, then it goes hard again. "They were good people. Then there was Corvus. There was the bond. He didn't want me. He hated me. He made me feel like I was nothing until I actually became nothing. I died alone in the dark."I don't say anything. I don't make a joke. Usually, I have a joke for everything.But right now, I am very quiet."And the second time?" Aldric asks. His voice is deep and steady, like a rock in a river."The second time was different," Amara says. She stares into the orange embers of the fire. "I had a father who taught me how to find the exits. He taught me the woods. He died in a battle. My mother... she just stopped seeing me after that. She looked through me. Then there was my stepfather."She says
Amara“It wasn’t just a rejected bond,” Maren said. Her voice was quiet. The fire between us danced, making shadows jump on the rough ground. Everyone else was sleeping, rolled up in their blankets, safe and warm for now. Only Maren and I were awake, sharing this secret space, this hard truth. I watched the flames, listening to her tell me things I had waited three lives to understand. It felt like my whole world was about to break apart and put itself back together, all at once.“When you died the first time,” she went on, her eyes on the fire too, “when Corvus’s bond with you broke, really broke, something happened that he didn’t mean to make happen.” She paused, like she was picking the right words, small and plain words, for something very big. “A kind of… pulse. It went out into the wolf world. Not like a boom or a crash. More like a hum. A signal.”I remember that time, even now. The cold. The hurt. The feeling of being nothing. I remember the pain, like my whole self was breaki
Amara"They are far enough away now," Bram said.He was looking through a gap in the bushes. His voice was low. Very low. We were all still crouched on the ridge while nobody moved and I could feel the cold ground through my boots. My heart was hitting my ribs very hard."Are you sure?" Sela whispered. She looked very pale."Yes," Bram said. "The unit is heading to a different direction. They are sticking to the main trail."We all let out a big breath at the same time. It was like we had been sharing one lung for ten minutes. We stood up slowly. My legs felt a bit like jelly. We walked down the ridge toward the small camp we had hidden in the trees.I looked for Maren. I found her sitting on a flat rock near where we kept the water skins. She was watching the woods. She looked like she knew something I didn't. I went and then sat next to her."She saw us," I said. I didn't say hello. I just said the thing that was stuck in my head.Maren looked at me. Her face was full of wrinkles. "







