ELENA’S POV The ridge overlooked a vast, gaping chasm, and far beyond the frozen jagged peaks, the distant lights of the capital flickered like dying embers. I stood alone at the edge of the granite cliff, the biting mountain wind whipping my hair across my face. Beneath my ribs, my wolf paced restlessly, her eyes fixed on the distant capital. She didn't growl. She simply watched, every instinct focused on the territory that had once belonged to our bloodline. The white-gold signet ring pulsed softly against my finger, answering the steady rhythm of her heartbeat inside me. I looked out toward those distant, glowing streets—the city where my lineage had been systematically slaughtered, the place where I had been hunted, branded, and discarded into the snow. Tomorrow, I thought, my fingers curling tightly around the stone ledger. I thought about my mother’s face, her soft voice that had been silenced by King Richard’s executioners. I thought about the terrified little kitche
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