Ethan's POV
I had never wanted to be here.
Being Gamma's son meant certain things were expected of me whether I wanted them or not, and standing among Silvercrest's delegation at the royal training grounds was apparently one of them. My father had informed me of my nomination three months ago with the same tone he used for everything else—brisk, practical, entirely uninterested in whether I actually wanted the responsibility being handed to me.
"You'll represent Silvercrest's future leadership alongside Damien," he had said, as though that settled the matter entirely.
I had wanted to laugh at the idea of standing shoulder to shoulder with Damien Walkers as some kind of unified representation of our pack's next generation. We had never been close. I respected his skill well enough, the
