[Atlas P.O.V.]
The day broke crisp and clear, sunlight spilling over the packhouse like a promise. I stood on the upper balcony, watching the early risers prepare the ceremonial grounds below. It had been three days since Astrid asked me to give her a child. Three days since she whispered it against my throat, soft and certain. We hadn’t wasted a moment. Still, the Moon Goddess worked in her own time, and Astrid, despite her hope, was not yet pregnant.
Yet today wasn’t about that.
Today, she would become Luna before our people. Before the Elders. Before the wolves who still dared to whisper behind her back.
The rumors hadn’t stopped. If anything, they'd gotten louder, coiled into corners of conversation like smoke lingering in the air like her magic around me.
I’d hunted witches befo
