The world went silent.
Not the kind of silence that follows battle—but the kind that presses inward, heavy and absolute, as if even breath itself had been forbidden.
The moon was gone.
In its place hung an endless, starless void.
Every wolf remained frozen where they stood—kneeling, standing, bleeding—caught between seconds. Ronan and Kael were locked mid-strike, claws inches from flesh, their growls trapped in their throats.
Only I could move.
Silver light poured from my body now, no longer wild but deliberate, wrapping around me like a living veil. My feet lifted from the ground.
“No…” I whispered, panic surging as the courtyard blurred beneath me. “This isn’t real.”
It is.
The voice wasn’t sound.
It filled me.
Ancient. Endless. Feminine and vast.
The courtyard dissolved.
Th
