Chapter 25:Independence

(Scarlett's POV) The wind felt sharper as the sun dipped, losing its warmth. My arms hugged tighter around me, but it wasn’t just the chill. My nerves coiled tighter the closer we got to dusk. My wolf, Cora, wasn’t helping. She wasn’t calm. She wasn’t quiet. She kept pushing, bristling. “He’s coming,” Cora growled. Her tone was a mix of warning and strange exhilaration. “Roman. He’s ours.” I gritted my teeth, trying to steady my breathing. “Stop it,” I hissed under my breath. But my voice wavered more than I wanted. “You feel him. Pretend all you want, but every fiber of you knows it,” Cora pressed, practically vibrating beneath my skin. She growled low in my mind, so insistent it was dizzying. “I can’t—” I muttered, cutting myself off before the words spilled out. Because the truth was, she wasn’t wrong. The shift in the air hit before I even laid eyes on him. It was faint at first, just the ghost of his scent carried by the wind. Pine and midnight. It was still the same, still