Born Of Fangs And Fire

SelenaI stripped the sheet before dawn.Petra would have noticed it eventually — she notices everything — so I folded the burns inward, pushed the whole thing to the bottom of the linen chest under the window, and made the bed myself with clean linen before the household stirred. By the time the first grey light came over the mountains I was sitting at my writing table with cold water, composing my face into the arrangement that serves me best in this house.Attentive. Contained. Giving nothing away.Six days until the Moon Claiming Ceremony.Morning training runs from first light until the sun clears the eastern ridge. It has not been optional for me since I was fifteen, when my father made it clear — through a messenger, naturally — that whatever else I was or wasn't, I would at minimum be present and demonstrate effort.Presence and effort. The two things the Valez name requires of me. Everything else is apparently negotiable.There were eleven others in the yard when I arrived. C

Selena"Lower your weapons."Kael didn't turn around. Didn't raise his voice. He was still looking at me when he said it, like the three crossbows aimed at my chest were a minor administrative inconvenience.None of the hunters moved."High Alpha's order." The kneeling one. Steady voice, steady hands — a man who didn't frighten easily and knew it. "The hybrid is to be contained and transported to the High Council chambers for—""I know what the order says."Kael turned then. And I watched what happened to the hunters when he faced them directly — a collective tightening, a micro-adjustment in their stances. The particular recalibration of men who have just remembered something important about who they're speaking to."I am telling you to lower your weapons."A beat.The kneeling hunter lowered his crossbow.The two standing ones exchanged a look — fast, professional — and then lowered theirs.I had exactly the length of that exchange to make a decision. My father was still at the edge