"Sweetheart."
Kaya slung her arm around me. Tapped the neck of her bottle against the rim of my glass.
"How does a wolf learn what pain is, if she doesn't get pieces of her hide ripped out? How do you grow into your real claws without the bone-deep lesson? Wolves who have come through blood and fire become true kings."
We threw our heads back and howled at the full moon. Celebrating my freedom. Celebrating the rot finally cut out of me.
The Elder Council released the full pool of my family's wealth and resources.
I divided my territory's defenses and my reserves into ten parts. I sold each parcel to a different rising power outside our Pack. In return I received an amount of crystal-coin and rare matériel that no single Pack on the continent had ever held at once.
After that night, K
