The ruins had shown her destiny carved in ancient stone. But prophecy meant nothing if she lacked the strength to claim what was hers by right.
Reign threw herself into training with the single-minded intensity of someone who had tasted both power and helplessness. The revelation of the prophecy burned in her mind like a brand, driving her to push beyond every limit she had previously accepted.
Each dawn found her stalking through the frozen wasteland with the direwolf at her side, hunting prey that grew progressively more dangerous as her skills improved. Her claws learned to split thick hides with surgical precision. Her teeth cracked through bone like winter breaking branches. Every strike became faster, sharper, more lethal than the last.
The direwolf pushed her relentlessly, forcin
