My whole body was shaking now, my breath coming in short, ragged pulls, and I pressed both hands over my mouth to keep whatever sound was building in my chest from escaping too loud for the whole compound to hear.
It was real.
Nineteen years. Nineteen years of Edith's laughter, of my father's contempt, of every wolf in Twilight looking at me like I was broken, incomplete, a mistake wearing a person's shape. Nineteen years of being told wolfless meant worthless, that I was lesser, that whatever I felt stirring under my own skin was a comforting lie I'd told myself to survive being unwanted.
It had never been a lie.
The first sob tore out of me before I broke down crying, my shoulders shaking, my hands pressed against my face like I could hold myself together through sheer force while ni
