My Mother's Blood, His Pack's Ruin

"Miss Thornwood, we've found a body in the wildlands. The features match your mother's. We need you to come and identify her."

My smile, reflected in the mirror of the ceremonial-robe den, shattered with a single call across the sending-stone.

The Healer's morgue reeked of wolfsbane and something older, something that clung to the cold stone walls like a confession no one wanted to hear. When they pulled back the shroud, her body was barely recognizable. Her eyes, gone. Her organs, ripped out like she'd been nothing more than game dragged down by a starving pack.