ANNE POV - Bonus chapter 2
I had learned how to stand still without disappearing.
It wasn’t something you were born knowing. It was something you developed when you grew up without anyone to anchor you, when you learned early that if you took up too much space, the ground under your feet could vanish without warning. So you stayed useful. Present. Quietly indispensable.
I had been with the pack long before Grace.
Before the war.
Before the Queen.
Before everything shattered and rearranged itself into something that looked suspiciously like happiness.
I had always been good at standing slightly to the side.
Not out of the circle. Never excluded. Just… adjacent. Close enough to be part of everything, far enough not to be the center of it. It was a skill you learned when you grew up w
