I stared at her.
At the girl I had followed through half my life. The girl who had once shoved a boy twice her size into the mud because he told a younger wolf omegas were born to bow. The girl who cried at stupid animal rescue videos and pretended she had allergies. The girl who wanted to be Alpha so badly she had built bones around the wanting and still believed one crack meant she had failed the whole structure.
My hands clenched.
Rain slid down my neck, cold under my collar.
“This is not your mess,” I said.
She looked away.
Goddess, she looked away.
“I should have noticed.”
“You were poisoned by dark magic designed to hide itself.”
“Perse noticed when something was wrong with her.”
“You are not Perse.”
Her eyes snapped back to mine.
I knew immediately I had said it wrong.
