Chapter 16: Lyra’s Lesson
The clearing at the heart of Moonborne’s training grounds shimmered with morning frost, the kind that clung to blades of grass like tiny shards of glass. The faint mist rising from the damp earth carried the musky, iron-like scent of wolves in their shifted form and the sharp tang of sweat from countless drills. For Seren, standing on that soil felt like stepping onto a battlefield she had no business belonging to.
Her legs ached from the bruises still forming from Kaelen’s patrol run yesterday, but worse than the pain was the heat of dozens of eyes boring into her from the edges of the circle. The pack warriors were gathered, some in their wolf forms, some still human, all of them watchful. They did not smile. They did not welcome.
They waited.
And at the cen
