I expected rest. Maybe an hour or at least five minutes before I start my task. Instead, the council sent me straight from breakfast to the infirmary.

“Clean her up and keep her standing,” someone barked.

When I arrived, the healer’s lodge was already brimming with the injured. Some were warriors still recovering from previous encounters or during patrols, and others were refugees that the pack planned to take in. The scent of blood and herbs twisted my gut, but I swallowed ...