tte

ock the door and pretend to be asleep. Then I found the plaine

the northernmost part of the Pack lands-a forbidden zone. But I didn't plan to go there directly. I needed so

hispering at my window. The news was already spreading. One of them glanced toward the main

fore the Pack le

ipped out into the cold evening air. I stuck to the shadows of the d

collapsed behind a rotting barrel, retching bile onto the dirt. My hands trembled violently. For a long, terrifying moment, I couldn't see-only hear the distant shouts of someone calling

er and ran strai

noblewomen and a distant niece of Seraphina. Beside her stood her hulking handmaiden

th a silk fan. "The disgrace that didn't have the decency to stay dead.

one of Seraphina's cronies, and he

I lowered my head and

. I was expecting it, and I managed to

wander around, you wolfless freak? You think you can just walk away? I should have you chained up a

thick fingers rea

rporate sharks, took over. Just as her hand wa

. Her momentum carried her forward, an

hey both went down in a tangle

to see the r

urious screams echoed behind me, and I heard the

ged into a small, dense patch of woods that serv

d-two, maybe three sets of footsteps.

d deeper into the forbidden northern woods-toward the Regent's territory. I had no choice. The open gr

the rocky incline, ignoring the branches that tore at my dress and scratch

ng curses, but they didn't dare descend. One of the guards shouted,

heir words hung in the a

it. A massive structure, built entirely of black rock, radiating an aura of cold,

gent's

ire Dominion. A chill ran down my spine as I remembered the whispers: no one entered those gates uninvited

eshold of my last chance-