Patrick entered the final ring at dawn. There were no witnesses nor blessings. No chants from loyal wolves willing him onward. He stood alone on the black soil of the rival territory, muscles tight beneath the cold morning air, lungs steady with the kind of focus that comes only after being broken down to the rawest core and forced to rebuild from it. The Trial was never meant to crown him. It was meant to expose him. Strip him of the Beta instincts drilled into him since birth. Strip him of obedience. Strip him of the fear that had once kept him from questioning the circumstances of his father’s death....