Aiden
Aiden had said it plainly enough: alive, for now.
The words lingered in his mind long after he had slipped into the trees during their first encounter. To hear him speak was to understand that his life was not his own—it was conditional, borrowed, a span of years measured not in freedom but in reprieve.
Korrin Vale had been the hand that first bound him. He was wolf-blooded, though only half trained in the tools of men. A hunter who knew snares, barbs, and fire. He was no nameless mercenary; he had once fought on border patrols, a wolf sworn to defend the edges of the valley. Then he sold that oath for coin. He turned from guardian to predator, and Aiden was the prize.
