Chapter 58 : The Power of the Wolf

*Ember*

It was time.

The full moon was at its peak.

Standing naked in the moonlight, I could feel it beneath my skin, as though it was alive in my veins.

The clearing around me hummed with energy as the Moon Maidens chanted and burned fragrant incense around the perimeter where the grass met the towering old pines of the darkened woods. Chastine, who was facing me within the circle, recited something in a language that I didn’t recognize, but could feel deep in my bones.

Only minutes before, Lauryn had dragged me out of bed, through the palace, and out into the woods. The Maidens had been waiting. As they had prepared me for the ceremony, I had grown more and more nervous. Would it hurt to shift? What if it didn’t even happen at all? What if my father had been right all along, and I really was just worthless?

But now, as I closed my eyes and tilted my face up to meet the moon, those fears gave way to a certainty that I was meant to be there amongst t