The night air tasted like old secrets, bitter and heavy on my tongue. The tunnels Luca led me through were tight, damp, the kind that echoed your heartbeat back at you like a threat. But I didn’t falter. Not tonight. Not when my truth dangled this close to ruin.
We emerged in the shadows beyond the Pack’s eastern wall, covered in moss and memory. The forest greeted us like an old enemy, familiar, cold, and waiting.
I hadn’t thought of this place in years. Not since the night they took me from The Haven.
My feet knew the path before I did. The trees thinned at the edge of the ridge, and there it stood, just as I remembered. Pristine.
White walls still unmarred by time. Lanterns burning soft amber in the courtyard.
The place that raised me. Molded me. Sold me.
The Haven.
A finishing
