Cain.
The crack of the final lash still echoed in my ears as I stepped down from the podium.
It rang sharp and clean, like wood splitting beneath a blade. The sound refused to fade, rebounding against the walls of my skull, threading itself through the steady rhythm of my heartbeat.
“Punishment complete.”
The elder’s voice had carried across the trial ground without strain, calm, resolute, unquestionable. The crowd had gone still at once. No murmurs. No protests. Only the heavy silence that follows a verdict was already decided long before it was spoken.
“Necessary,” I muttered inside my head.
The word was not for the elders, It was not for the pack, It was for my wolf and for myself.
Shut the storm.
I didn’t look back at the platform.
I didn’t look at her.
Not at the way her bod
