Silence didn’t fall.
It shattered.
Not gradually. Not gently.
It broke across the battlefield like glass—sharp, unnatural, suffocating.
“Daughter.”
The word echoed in my skull long after it left his lips.
My heart didn’t just stutter.
It stopped.
Everything around me blurred—the blood on the ground, the distant groans of injured warriors, the smoke curling into the red sky. Even the pain of the broken bond faded into something distant, muffled.
Because all I could see…
Was him.
Same silver eyes.
Same posture.
Same presence that once made an entire pack bow without question.
My father.
Dead.
Burned with Bloodmoon.
Buried in ash and memory.
So why—
Why was he standing here?
“No,” I whispered.
The word barely made it past my lips.
The figure didn’t move closer.
Didn’t r
