EMMA
The truth doesn’t arrive all at once.
It settles.
Like ash after a fire—soft, unavoidable, clinging to everything.
The courtyard is quieter now. Too quiet. The sirens have faded into the distance, leaving behind a hollowed-out stillness that makes every sound feel too loud: boots shifting on stone, a distant gate creaking, the low murmur of wolves speaking in careful tones. No one knows what to do with me anymore.
I stand at the center of it.
Not human.
Not wolf.
Just… seen.
The truth has teeth. It has fur and blood and history and rules older than the estate itself. And it has changed the way everyone looks at me.
Some with reverence.
Some with resentment.
Some with something dangerously close to hunger.
I wrap my arms around myself, not because I’m cold, but because I n
