I was awake before dawn. I lay in the dark and listened to the pack house sleep around me and thought about what I wanted from the day. Not what was going to happen, I had no control over that.
Not what I was afraid of, I had examined the fear carefully over the last three days and found it smaller than expected, smaller than it had any right to be given what was coming. What I wanted. That was a useful question.
I wanted to be looked at and seen clearly. Not what the Ashcroft Pack had decided I was at nine years old. Not what the Lycan King had decided I was at the ceremony. What I actually was, which I was only beginning to understand myself, which made it complicated to demand recognition of it from anyone else. But I was going to demand it anyway. I had decided that.
I dressed care
