Mine to keep, mine to break 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 121 - 챕터 124

Nalini The day of the tournament arrived like a held breath finally released—too fast, too loud, too heavy to escape.I woke before the sun, my body already humming with a nervous energy that felt nothing like excitement. It felt like warning. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, pacing in slow, uneasy circles, as though she sensed something I did not yet understand. I lay still on the narrow dorm bed, staring at the ceiling while the sounds of the academy came alive outside—boots on stone, distant shouts, the metallic clang of training weapons being hauled into place.Today was not just a competition.It was a reckoning.By the time I dressed and stepped outside, Silvermist Academy no longer felt like the place I had known. Banners hung from the high towers, silver and blue snapping sharply in the morning wind. The air was thick with layered scents—adrenaline, wolf musk, iron, old stone warmed by rising heat. Packs had begun to gather around the arena, voices rough with antic

Nalini The first thing I noticed at the ball was the heat.Not the warmth of bodies packed into the grand hall, not the hundreds of candles suspended in floating glass orbs above our heads, but the way the air seemed to tighten around me the moment I stepped inside. It pressed against my lungs like a held breath. Like the room itself knew something fragile had just crossed its threshold.I adjusted the plain fabric of the academy-issued dress at my sides. It was a soft gray, modest, unremarkable—meant to make me blend into the background, meant to remind me of my place. Servant. Omega. Not noble. Not royal. Certainly not someone with two princes orbiting her like moons trapped by gravity.The moonstone pendant rested against my collarbone, warm despite the cool metal chain. Timothy’s gift. I had touched it so many times on the walk here that the stone felt like an extension of my skin now, a quiet anchor against the noise in my head.The ballroom glittered. Gold and obsidian pillars