Chapter 37

The forest stretched endlessly in every direction, its silence broken only by the sound of Althea’s uneven footsteps. The night air clung to her skin, cold and heavy, as if the world itself had turned against her. Every step she took felt harder than the last, her limp worsening as exhaustion dragged at her muscles. She had stormed off without thinking, anger and frustration driving her deeper into the shadows of the trees. Her legs moved automatically, carrying her farther and farther away from the packhouse, from Kaden, from everything. Her limp, more pronounced in her rush, slowed her down, but she didn’t care. She needed the distance. She needed to breathe. But now, as her adrenaline faded, all that was left was the dull, crushing weight of everything she was running from. Her fight with Kaden had been brutal, his words cutting through her like shards of glass. "You expect me to carry your insecurities… to constantly remind you of your worth because you refuse to see it for yoursel