Chapter 60. The New Order

The Hollow Grounds still smelled of blood and burning wood when Selene finally turned her back on the shattered Council.

Wolves knelt in ragged half-circles around the ancient clearing, some still dazed by the outcome of the Rite, others watching her with eyes full of something new and untested. Hope, raw and uncertain, clung to them as thickly as the smoke curling upward from the guttering fires. The flames burned low along the perimeter, their embers glowing beneath a crimson-tinged sky, like offerings left behind for gods who no longer ruled this land.

Selene stood at the center of it all, her heart pounding, her skin slick with sweat, the silver glow of her bond still visible beneath the torn folds of her cloak. The mark at her collarbone pulsed steadily, an anchoring rhythm that matched the beat of her heart and the breath in her lungs.