After the Purge Trial, the surviving twenty Strategos Rawbonds gather in their anteroom, united in grief over having killed three of their own pack members. The mood is somber, with no celebrations. Meryn retreats to her room, haunted by the blood she saw and reflecting that Daemos culled five of their own, with Jonah—whose direwolf's mate died—now even more dangerous.

Stark arrives unexpectedly at Meryn's door. Rather than confronting her about Killian, he carries a tattoo needle and ink to mark her for Perielle's death. As he works, Meryn learns the tattoos are not trophies but reminders—each mark on a Bonded's skin represents a life taken or lost to maintain the pack. Stark reveals a mournful side Meryn has never seen. She requests a third mark for the man she killed in the dungeon (the Nabber), and Stark complies without asking questions. When he licks the wound clean per custom, Meryn experiences an involuntary rush of arousal that disturbs her, though Anassa stays silent about it.

The next morning, Rawbonds prepare for their day off to visit family. Meryn talks with Henrey, whose packmate Olivier was killed in the Purge, and directs him to a secondhand clothes shop for the Forging Ball that evening. Izabel, excited about the ball and a family luncheon, offers to bring Meryn a dress. Meryn dreads the ball's implications—the nobles treating Rawbonds like a meat market—but thinks of Killian's earlier offer to publicly claim her.

Meryn rides Anassa through the city toward her mother's home in the Eastern Quarter. She observes how commoners flee in fear from the direwolf, but notices Anassa's careful awareness—adjusting her stride to avoid harming anyone. Meryn reflects on how her perspective has shifted: the Bonded are not the enemy but are themselves used as entertainment and expendable soldiers by the king and nobles. She entertains a treasonous thought about why Killian should wait to take his father's throne, which Anassa endorses before Meryn shuts the conversation down.

Arriving at her childhood home, Meryn finds it repaired—new stucco, a fixed roof, and a straightened gate—realizing Killian has been quietly restoring the house. Overwhelmed with emotion, she dismounts and approaches the door, uncertain whether to knock at what no longer feels like home. Before she decides, the doorknob turns from inside, and Meryn closes her eyes, afraid of which version of her mentally ill mother she'll encounter.