The ridge emptied slowly.
Not in panic. Not in confusion.
Quietly.
Wolves left in small groups, some leaning on others for support, some carrying their wounded, some walking alone with expressions far older than their years. They did not move like soldiers returning from battle. They moved like people trying to understand the shape of a world no longer pinned to prophecy.
The snow muffled their footsteps, as though the land itself wanted silence for whatever came next.
Ronan had not moved from my side. Kade hovered close enough that I could feel the pull of his presence if I turned my head. Valen lay still in the snow, conscious but unresponsive, breath slow and shallow. He watched everything without speaking. Without interfering.
Without purpose.
Power had abandoned him, and in its
