Chapter 99

Mara's POV

My mother’s journal offered no secret spell. It offered names.

Evin, the watchman who had left his tower. His sister Nessa, who waited through the night for hunters who never returned. An Unbound child called Lark whose guardian signed a consent form after the Concord warned that refusal would put an entire pack at risk. Elara had copied the guardian’s signature twice. In the second version, she showed how the woman’s hand had trembled so badly that the last letter broke across the line.

Beside it my mother had written, Tell her what will happen to the child if she says no. Then tell her she chose freely.

The words made my wolf pace. I knew the feeling beneath her anger: the need to find a door and make sure it would open. Gideon had spent years arranging my choices until the one he wanted was the only o