CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Melody -

Each fleeting glimpse I caught of him stirred the sleeping embers of our history—a friendship birthed in the heady days of high school, where he had once been a rogue and his wolf had haunting red eyes, which were now intense in his wolf form.

Our bond had been laced with illicit whispers and stolen kisses in shadowed corners; stolen moments that now weighed heavily on a conscience I hadn't realized was so burdened.

Now, as I shed the layers of my past along with my clothes, my transformation into my wolf Sariah was a metamorphosis of more than just flesh. She embodied the wild joy of freedom, yet at this moment, she became the embodiment of my inner turmoil—a vocal reminder chiding me against revisiting a flame that had no right to burn any longer.

Her presence was at once a liberation and a vexation, goading me with the truth I tried to ignore. It's not merely about informing an old flame that the future has been irreversibly altered. I had found my mate, my destined other.