I used to think blood meant loyalty.
But sometimes, wolves outside your bloodline love you far better than those born in it.
Lena had proved that.
She was the only one who stood by me, the only wolf who treated me like her own pup.
She became my real mother in every way that mattered.
Now, standing beside her with my arm linked through hers, I felt light.
Free.
Alive in a body that wasn't supposed to be alive at all.
Across the hall, my birth mother Vivian stared at me like she was looking at a ghost.
Her face pale.
Her breath caught.
Her eyes wide and shaking.
Beside me, Lena let out a small laugh and squeezed my hand.
"This girl," she said softly, "always clinging to her mom, even now. Don't mind her, Mrs. Morrigan."
Vivian's lips trembled.
"My daughter used to do that too," she whispered. "Always holding onto me like this. But I… I lost her."
She turned away as sobs shook her whole wolf body.
