Damien's POV
Here was the thing nobody wanted to say out loud: I was still the best wolf. Ariana could land every clean strike she wanted in that ring, Adrian could stand there looking effortlessly composed like it cost him nothing, and it still wouldn't change the basic math of the situation. I had simply made a mistake. Mistakes could be corrected. That was practically the entire premise of leadership training, wasn't it? Assess. Adapt. Fix what's broken.
I was going to fix this.
Corwin found me sharpening a blade I had no real intention of using, which he clocked immediately with the particular unimpressed look he'd been perfecting since we were twelve.
"You're doing the thing," he said, dropping into the chair across from me.
"What thing."
"The thing where you decide something ri
