*Flashback*
The Ironmaw compound sat in a hanging valley between two peaks, invisible from below. You had to know the trail — a switchback path through a pine forest so dense the canopy blocked the sky — and even then, you had to know where the trail *stopped* being a trail and became a test. Ronan led her up on foot. She was still too injured to shift, and the climb took most of a day, and by the time the trees opened onto the valley floor she was shaking with exhaustion and biting the inside of her cheek to keep from making a sound about it.
Ronan noticed. He always noticed. He didn't comment.
The compound was not what she expected. She'd imagined something like Ashenmoor — a central hall, ranked housing, a training yard with formal boundaries. What she found was a collection of stone
