Chapter 36. The Heart of the Pack

Mira drifted into consciousness like a swimmer surfacing from deep water—slowly, reluctantly, as though even her mind wasn’t certain it was ready to rise. Light poured across her closed lids, warm and golden, drawing her further upward. She blinked against it, lashes fluttering. Morning. Clear and bright. Too bright.

The bed beneath her was impossibly soft—layers of down and linen cradling her in a way that felt almost unreal, like something remembered from long ago or imagined entirely. She sank deeper for a moment, reluctant to move, the plush mattress cocooning her in comfort she hadn’t known in years. Not in the damp corners of abandoned houses, not beneath canvas roofs, not even wrapped in Kaelen’s arms on the road. This was something different. Luxurious. Still.

And unfamiliar.

Slowly, Mira sat up, her muscles heavy but not in pain. Her hand moved automatically to her chest, then down her sides, tracing the strange smoothness of the fabric she wore. No flanne