The staircase creaked under my weight, every step groaning like it wanted to give me away. Dominic climbed ahead of me, quiet, careful, checking each landing before he let me pass. My legs burned. My feet, wrapped in boots two sizes too big, felt like they belonged to someone else entirely.
"Almost there," he said, low. "Third floor. End of the hall."
I nodded, too tired to answer with words. Somewhere below us, the city was waking up properly now, car horns and distant voices, ordinary people starting an ordinary day. None of them knew a rejected Luna was hiding three floors above them with a child growing inside her and a former pack still hunting the ground she used to walk on freely.
Dominic unlocked a door at the end of the hallway and pushed it open, checking the room before he le
