PAULINE
I sat on the cold stone floor, my body curled tight around itself, the dampness seeping through my dress and into my bones.
Time felt meaningless down here. There was no light except the thin shaft filtering through the barred window high above, no sound except my own ragged breathing and the occasional drip of water somewhere in the darkness.
I was the third daughter of a nothing pack.
The thought came unbidden, sharp and bitter. My father had ruled a territory so small you could walk its borders in an afternoon. Three daughters, no sons, and a dwindling influence that hemorrhaged away with each passing year.
My eldest sister had been beautiful in that delicate, porcelain way men claimed to prefer. Soft-spoken. Gentle. Everything a Luna was supposed to be.
She never stood a chance at the ball, where eligible wolves gathered like vultures circling fresh meat.
