Wolves moved like a tide across the battlefield. Not as soldiers. Not as conquerors. Not as conquered. They came as witnesses.
Ronan and Kade ran ahead of the pack, commanding warriors to gather survivors, to pull the wounded from snowbanks, to drag rogues who could still breathe into a long line facing the Winterborn hall. The frozen ridge transformed into an arena without walls, every wolf forming a circle around me.
The moon’s dust still rained down, settling into fur and hair and lashes. It did not burn. It glowed, like the remnants of something ancient searching for a new place to belong.
Valen remained where he knelt, silent and hollow. The vines that had emerged from the land had receded into the earth, leaving no trace except the mark they had burned into the snow. A severance l
