~Annalyn POV~
Leo found me during the twenty-minute window between the second and third wave, when the grounds were quiet enough that people were either resting or pretending to.
He touched my arm once to get my attention and then walked toward the far end of the courtyard without looking back, which was the kind of invitation that did not require a verbal response. I followed him.
We stopped near the stone wall at the east corner, away from the guards and away from the corridor where Matteo was coordinating the next rotation.
"How much time do we have," I said.
"Enough," Leo said. "I will be direct because that is the only version of this conversation worth having." He faced me fully. "Everything you have been told about your bloodline, about the crossing between hunter and wolf, about why it was forbidden, has been framed as an accident. A violation of natural law. Something that should not have happened and produced consequences nobody anticipated."
