Noah.
I hadn't seen Maria for a while.
At first, I told myself it was nothing.
She was strong, capable and independent to a fault. She didn't need constant supervision, and she certainly didn't owe anyone explanations for her movements.
But as the hours stretched, something inside me began to unravel.
My wolf grew restless.
Agitated.
He paced endlessly beneath my skin, unsettled in a way that was becoming harder to ignore. Her absence wasn't just emotional, it was physical. It felt like something essential had been removed from my surroundings.
I couldn't breathe the same without her scent lingering nearby, and that terrified me.
I had gotten worse.
There was no denying it anymore.
I was addicted to her scent.
It clung to my memory, to my lungs, to my thoughts. I found myself walking through places she had once stood just to catch the faintest trace of it. The training grounds. The inner courtyard. Even the garden path she rarely used.
Nothing.
She was nowhere.
