𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐄
No.
No…
No—
I had failed.
After all the grueling training, the emotional wreckage I'd had to navigate, the scars, and the solemn promises I made to myself and to my mother—I had faltered. I had let myself be caught.
If this had been Veronique hunting me, I would already be dead, a gaping, crimson hole where my jugular used to be. The realization hollowed me out faster than fear ever could.
My mother had bled out on cold asphalt while I was busy learning how to survive. While I learned how to run. While I struggled to become strong enough to kill the man who had shattered her life and left me behind as living evidence of his cruelty.
And yet, here I was.
Pinned to the damp forest floor by another Alpha, lungs burning from a chase I had lost. My body shook with the sickening understanding that if I could not evade this—if I could not survive a controlled, mock hunt—then I had no right to believe I was capable of vengeance.
I couldn't even do this right.
