The dilapidated remains of my ancestral home loomed before me, a crumbling monument to a painful past. I'd let it fall by the wayside, hoping that as each brick fell, so too, would the pain my father had brought. But now that Aurora was truly ours... I wanted to finally heal properly.
I sucked in a sharp breath, assaulted by the acrid scent of charred wood and dust. Memories flickered through my mind like the faded photographs lining the dirt-caked walls—a laughing child chasing a wolf through verdant fields, two brothers huddled close to a fireplace on a frigid winter night, a family portrait with stern faces and hollow eyes.
Gone. All of it, gone. Thank f**k. This place was a cesspool of abuse and trauma.
My hands curled into fists, claws pricking my calloused palms. The urge to roar
