Charlotte didn’t sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her own face staring back at her from the forest shadows, pale and knowing, as though it had already lived through everything Charlotte feared.
I’m what happens if you fail.
The words clung to her mind like thorns, impossible to shake, sinking deeper the more she tried to ignore them.
Dawn crept slowly over Moonshadow Academy, pale gold light spilling across ancient stone towers and stretching over the quiet training grounds. From her window, Charlotte watched the Northern wolves already at work, their movements sharp and precise, bodies cutting through drills with unsettling perfection.
They were disciplined. Controlled. Strategic.
Too strategic.
A knock broke through the stillness.
Charlotte didn’t need the bond to k
