JAYNAYAH

By morning, the whole pack knew.

Not because someone announced it. No bell rang. No order was shouted through the halls.

Still, I felt it in the way voices softened when I passed. In the way wolves stepped aside without lowering their eyes in fear. In the way Brenda looked at me over breakfast with damp lashes and pretended the steam from her tea had caused it.

Tonight, beneath the full moon, I would stand before them.

If I chose.

That was the part I kept holding in my hands like something fragile.

If I chose.

No one came to dress me before I was ready. No one dragged...