I stood there for a long moment after the girls left, the silence pressing down on me like a weight I couldn’t shake.

My mind kept spinning—circling back to that room they called the dark room.

The way the wolf had lunged out of the shadows, its fur blackened like it hadn’t seen the sun in years.

The way it had pinned me down, teeth inches from my throat.

The way Alpha Mace’s voice had cut through the growl—cold, furious—and the creature had stopped.

And then what the healer, Sailas, had said.

That the wolf was Alpha Mace’s mother.

My stomach twisted.

Mother or not, she had wanted me dead....