Chapter 6

The next morning, pale light spilled through the high windows onto the cold floor.

Guards pushed the door open and motioned for me to leave.

Today was the marking ceremony.

The territory’s morning was wrapped in gray-white fog. The stone path shone wet and cold. The plaster on my right leg weighed like rock; every step drilled pain straight through me.

With the rough wooden cane they’d given me, I forced myself forward. Two guards followed, not too close, not too far.

Early-rising pack members paused in their preparations, their gazes stabbing my back like needles.

“That’s her—the one who tried to hurt Luna…”

“Half-bloods are half-bloods. Maybe the poison’s in their bones.”

“The Alpha was too merciful. If it were me, I’d…”

Whispers rolled like tidewater, then ebbed.

I kept walking, face blank, spine straight. My heart was already dead; those voices could no longer pierce the ice shell around it.

At the border, Abbott and Roberta stood there. As if they’d happened to be on patrol—or as if they’d come specifically for this final “farewell.”

Abbott’s eyes settled on me. In those golden-brown irises there was no ripple—only cold, businesslike assessment.

Roberta leaned at his side in a plain, elegant dress, her face still pale. She stepped forward, voice gentle as if she didn’t want to disturb the fog.

“Savvy, forget everything here. I hope in your new place… you’ll learn to let go, and find peace.”

She sighed softly, as if she’d suffered and chosen forgiveness anyway.

I watched her slender fingers rest on her abdomen. That nonexistent “child” was her best prop.

Abbott stood behind her, brows faintly drawn.

His gaze fell on me—complicated for a flicker, then hardening into warning.

“Savvy, learn from Roberta’s kindness. Don’t be foolish,” he said, low and emotionless. “Stay in the stone hut. Don’t cause trouble. Once the wedding is over, once everything settles…”

He paused, as if weighing his words, then said, “You can come back.”

He said it as if it were generosity.

As if he believed I’d be overcome with gratitude—waiting humbly for his mercy, like before.

I looked at them performing, and inside me was a dead lake—no ripple.

“Happy wedding,” I said slowly, lifting my head. My gaze slid from Roberta’s false face to Abbott’s cold eyes. My mouth curved in the faintest arc. “Alpha. Luna.”

My voice was frighteningly calm—no hate, no resentment—like I was speaking of something that had nothing to do with me.

Abbott’s brow twitched, almost imperceptible, and his expression turned strange.

He’d likely imagined me crying, raging, even begging on my knees. He’d never imagined I’d bless them with a steady voice.

“The stone hut is safe,” he pressed, emphasizing each word. “Don’t run.”

But I had already turned and walked into the foggy forest.

Behind me, the territory, the pack, Abbott, Roberta—my pitiful four-year dream—were quickly swallowed by dense trees.

I didn’t head toward the marked exile hut on the border.

I went the opposite direction, dragging myself onward.

I don’t know how long I walked before a clearing opened ahead.

A jeep sat on the gravel road. My mother stood by the door. When she saw how wrecked I was, her eyes reddened instantly.

But she didn’t ask anything. She only hugged me tightly once.

In the car, she pulled out a sealed vial of cloudy liquid, shimmering with an unnatural silver light.

“Drink it.”

Her voice was soft, but unshakable. “It’ll hurt. But it will sever the last connection between you and wolf blood. From then on, you’ll be human Savvy.”

The last thing my mother had managed to obtain from my wolf father.

She wanted me to have a choice. And now I chose to abandon everything wolf.

I took the vial. No hesitation. No fear. I tipped my head back and drank it down.

Heat. Cold.

The liquid scorched its way down my throat, like a thousand needles spearing through my veins, hammering at the half-wolf blood.

Agony flooded my entire body in an instant. I clenched my fists until my nails cut my palms, enduring the pain of transformation.

My mother started the engine. One hand steady on the wheel, the other covering my icy hand with firm pressure.

I leaned against the window and closed my eyes. My awareness blurred.

The pain kept tearing through me, but some kind of shackle seemed to be snapping, peeling away, dissolving inch by inch.

I knew that when I woke, there would no longer be any Savvy Blackclaw.

Only Savvy Haugen.

A human girl with a bright future.