MELISSA’S POV

The road to the Academy was longer than I had imagined. With every step I took, I expected someone to call me back, or Leon’s men to catch up to me and drag me back in chains.

By the time the towering gates of the Alpha Academy came into view, my legs shook with exhaustion. The academy was nothing like I had pictured as a child, when my Father used to speak of it in reverent tones. Its walls were stark and brutal, lined with sharpened spikes, its banners snapping sharply in the wind. I had no doubt that wolves here weren’t raised to dream; they were forged...