Sasha’s Pov
The moon hung low over the Trial Grounds, huge, swollen, silver like it was watching us. Watching me. It washed everything in that cold, too-bright light that made shadows stretch long and wrong across the stones.
We stood in formation, a sea of trainees trying not to show our breath in the freezing air. We were silent. We were still.
But something was off.
I shifted, barely. Fingers twitching at my sides like they already knew before I did.
The wind wasn’t moving.
The birds were gone.
And somewhere deep in my chest, my wolf stirred, nervous, ears flattened, muscles coiled like a trap about to spring.
Then it happened.
One scream, high and sharp, cut the silence clean in half.
I whipped toward the sound just in time to see someone drop, throat slashed, eyes wide and f
