CMorning broke hard and bright, the kind of crystalline dawn that left no shadows in which secrets could hide. From the highest balcony of the Alpha House Markus watched wolves stream into the courtyard below—warriors in burnished leathers, cooks with floured aprons, elders wrapped in somber wools, and pups who clutched their mothers’ hands yet craned curious necks to glimpse whatever reckoning was coming. Five years earlier the same stones had echoed with jeers hurled at a trembling Luna; now they waited to swallow different cries.
A horn note rolled across the square. Guards parted the crowd, and Bianca emerged flanked by two sentries in steel and chain. She wore no silks this morning, only a plain gray robe that swallowed her once-regal posture. Behind her shuffled Lala—eyes ringe
