The path to the training grounds was shorter than I remembered.
Maybe because this time, I wasn’t following anyone. I wasn’t being led like an obedient pet to stand in the shade and clap. My boots carried me forward, each step an act of quiet defiance.
The morning air was crisp, edged with the bite of impending winter. Voices drifted over the low stone wall that separated the field from the rest of the estate—shouts, laughter, and the hard smack of flesh meeting flesh.
I reached the edge of the wall and paused, fingertips brushing the rough stone.
In my last life, this had been the line.
I’d never crossed it.
Lucian had brought me here once or twice in the beginning, for appearances. “Come,” he’d said. “The pack should see their Luna.” And I had stood, perfectly dressed, perfectly qu
