I returned to the northern overlook before sunrise.
Not because Mara told me to.
Not because the Alpha sent me.
Not because anyone in Beaumont expected me anywhere at all.
I went because, for the first time in my life, I was tired of waiting for permission to understand myself.
The village still slept behind me.
Smoke curled lazily from a few chimneys, gray against the pale-blue hush of morning. Frost clung to rooftops and fence posts. The muddy paths from yesterday's rain had hardened overnight, leaving shallow footprints frozen into the ground like memories the earth refused to release.
My boots crunched softly with every step.
Too loud.
Everything felt too loud when I was trying not to be seen.
I kept my cloak pulled tightly around me and stayed close to the shadows between co
