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“Let me show you what day-to-day life is as a luna,” Lauren tells me. “I want to make sure you know how to balance your life out. Being luna of a large clan like this is a lot of work, and it’s very easy to lose yourself in the process. This is why I didn’t push for training while you were a growing pup.” She sweeps her arm at the cabins around us. “I wanted to make sure you found your passions so it didn’t overshadow your future duties. It’s easier to balance things out that way.”

I look at our building, then the forest. I don’t even need to think about this one. “I love working at the medical center.”

“Then there’s no reason why you should stop.” She hooks her arm through mine. “Now come, let’s get you acclimated with the community.”

By sundown, I’ve been introduced to more names and faces than I can keep straight. My wolf gave up on sorting their scents a while ago. Hatchlings drop out of the sky all over the village as their mothers call them home. Lauren swings the pantry doors shut on the last stop of her rounds and sets the crossbar in place.

Hazel comes up the path toward us and pulls me into a long, warm hug. I sag against her.

“Welcome to Ash Clan, future luna,” she says.

I laugh and hug her harder. “That’s really weird coming from you, of all people.”

She eases back and smiles at me. I brush some wild hair away from her face. She just has this glow about her, even in her beautiful bright blue eyes.

“Are you coming for dinner?” Lauren asks her.

Hazel glances back toward Valek’s cabin. Tyrion and Sam stand on the porch with Dominic. Many of the clan’s dragons crowd in around them to listen. I’ve been drowning them out on purpose all day, even with my wolf straining toward the sound of Ezra’s voice. Whatever they’re saying over there, I don’t want to know.

Hazel shrugs. “Sure. I just have to find my daughter. Nova’s around here somewhere.”

“I’ll see you inside, then,” Lauren says. “I’m going to grab Kenna and get dinner started.” She squeezes my arm before she heads off toward her cabin.

Hazel turns to me. “Want to go to the border and sit by the water for a bit?”

My wolf is all for it, and so am I. Hazel opens a portal beside the pantry with blue and gold swirling around its edges. On the other side, the sun is sinking toward the lake at the border. The horizon has already gone dark, with the bridge to Wintermoon a black shape against what’s left of the light.

“I’ll meet you there.” I back up and break into a run.

Behind me, Hazel giggles. “Meet you there.”

I race past our half-built cabin and into the trees. My wolf rises, and I give her the run she’s been begging for all day. Twigs and needles bite into the soles of my feet, but I don’t ease up for any of it. I duck under a low branch and leap a fallen log. The pines grow close together. Their bark scrapes my arms as I cut between them with my lungs burning. Out here, no one needs me for anything. The smell of the lake gets stronger the deeper I go. Mother Fate, I needed this.

When I burst out of the tree line, Hazel is already there waiting. Portals are cheating, if you ask me. I walk the rest of the way to her slow over damp earth. She watches me come with her light dress swaying in the wind.

At her side, I turn to the water slapping at the rocks under the bridge. Hazel turns to me instead. “I heard about the bullying at the Academy.”

I wince. Do we really have to talk about this?

“My mother wasn’t good to the shifter community,” she continues. “The name stings, no doubt. Trust me when I say she was far worse when you had to live with her.”

I take my eyes off the water and face Hazel. If she wants to go there, she can hear the truth. “I know why my mother gave me this name. She was hurting when she had me. This place took her choices from her one at a time, and when I was born, my name was the only choice she had left that no one could take from her. So she picked the one name all of Wintermoon flinches at.” I wrap my arms around myself and dig my fingers into my sides. “She regrets it. I’ve been able to smell it on her since I was a pup. So I decided a long time ago that I was never going to let her carry it alone. My name came from my mother, and I love it because it came from her.”

“But you feel like you have something to prove with it,” Hazel guesses. “Need to make it a better name than it was before.”

I fall quiet. Even my wolf doesn’t have a comeback for that.

Hazel turns back to the lake. “I am a Bailey in blood. I know the atrocities my bloodline has placed on the shifter community. I lived with that same fear of the name and the feeling that I had something to prove.” She glances over at me. “Take it from me, you don’t have anything to prove to anyone. Live your life, love your dragon, and let this clan get to know you. If this clan came around for a Bailey, I promise you they will have no problem loving their new luna.”

I stare at the ground. “And the bullying? That isn’t going to stop.” I sigh, and my throat goes tight. I haven’t felt this vulnerable in a long time, but Hazel is pulling at wounds I’ve been trying to bury. “The hatred for my name has been passed down to my generation, and soon it will pass to our babies. They’ll be known as the hatchling-pups from the mother with the traitor’s name.”

Hazel moves closer. “I want you to know that I understand. I’m not going to tell you to get over it or to stop caring about what the community says. I still get looks when I visit the market. Some of the shifters in this community can’t forget the pain, and we shouldn’t try to make them erase it.”

She waits until I meet her eyes. “You know Tyrion is annoying as hell with how he connects every freaking thing to the stars.” She points down at my feet. “You see that rock? I’d swear it belongs to some distant galaxy somewhere.”

I laugh and brush a tear off my cheek. All that blinking didn’t do me any good.

“But he gave me something that sits with me,” she says. “When I’m having a rough day in Wintermoon, I think back on what he said.”