SERAPHINA’S POV
"I'm just saying," Daniel said, pushing his green beans around his plate with more focus than they warranted, "if I leave now, I’ll have more time to practice my starts."
"You have two hours."
Two hours until the horn sounded and the pack gathered at the tree line for my second-ever pack run.
I could already feel anticipation humming through my veins, the same restless energy that had been building all week—an itch beneath my skin I couldn't quite scratch, a warmth pooling low in my belly.
"Two hours isn't that long, Mom,” Daniel said with the weary patience of someone explaining something painfully obvious to a particularly slow student. “I need all the practice I can get.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve spent the last month practicing nonstop.”
