SOPHIA
The ward stones crack like bones breaking under pressure, each fracture sending cold warnings through my newly awakened Luna senses. I press both palms against the nearest one—granite carved with symbols that predate the pack's written history—and feel it crumble to dust that tastes of copper and Allura's betrayal.
"Every last one." Bertha's voice carries across dawn mist as she approaches through dying grass, her gnarled hands white-knuckled on a staff topped with wolf spine. "Every protection that witch wove into our defenses over the years."
The scope of deception steals my breath. Allura had been fostered by Luna Avril at seven, had helped maintain pack defenses since she turned sixteen. Eleven years of patient corruption, every ward stone, every protection circle, every barr
