Lorraine's POV
The forest stilled.
The image of young Avelar standing in the clearing, his hand wrapped around Maeryn's, began to blur like mist under sunlight. Their figures softened, edges bleeding into silver haze, until they faded completely, voices, breath, heartbeat, all gone.
I was alone again.
The castle. The woods. The memories. All of it dissolved into that endless, moonlit void that felt like neither dream nor reality.
My chest felt tight. Too tight.
Avelar Valerius Hunter.
That boy was the first Alpha King of the kingdom.
He was Kieran's ancestor.
"That was… them.... us?" I whispered. "That was how it began?"
"Yes," my wolf's voice answered gently behind me.
I turned. She stood there as before, radiant, calm, eternal, yet her eyes carried a sadness so ancient it made my throat ache.
"That," she said, "was Avelar Valerius Hunter and Maeryn's first encounter."
Something in her tone made my stomach sink.
