Chapter 85
Vanya
By the time the sun had risen high enough to burn away the mist, the courtyard felt like a stage.
Everywhere I walked, heads turned away. They didn’t even bother to hide it—backs stiffening, eyes darting aside, like the very act of looking at me might taint them. It wasn’t new, the whispers, the suspicion. But today, it was sharp. Unforgiving.
Because today wasn’t about whispers.
Today was about survival.
No one volunteered to be my aid.
Not one Alpha.
I’d felt every stare, every smirk that said you’re dead today, and every turned back.
I wasn’t going to beg.
I had too much dignity for that.
So I sat on the edge of the stone platform, arms resting on my knees, staring at the chalked outline of the ring where blood would inevitably spill, and told myself I’d mana
