The Silverfang dining hall fell silent when Mira entered. The quiet was not respectful. It was watchful.
Long wooden tables stretched across the stone chamber, filled with warriors, elders, hunters, and mothers with restless pups. The air smelled of roasted venison and pine smoke. Every conversation stopped when Mira walked past them wearing the same simple gray dress she had worn for three days.
She ignored the raised platform at the far end of the hall.
That platform belonged to the Alpha and Luna.
Instead, Mira carried a wooden bowl toward the lowest table near the kitchen entrance and sat beside two older women who glanced at her with confused expressions.
One of them finally spoke. “You are allowed to sit above, child.”
Mira dipped her spoon into the thin stew. “I know.”
The se
