The days after the battle were a time of reckoning.
Shadowfang counted its dead and tended its wounded. The Meteor pack survivors mourned their losses and began to hope for a future. The Red Claw, broken and scattered, retreated into the mountains from which they had come. For the first time in years, the valley was quiet.
But peace, Elara learned, was never simple.
On the third day after the battle, a delegation arrived at the border. They came under a flag of truce—a small group of Red Claw survivors, led by a woman with silver hair and eyes like winter ice. Her name was Sera, and she asked to speak with the Alpha, to negotiate, to find a way forward.
Damon received her in the meeting hut, surrounded by warriors. Elara stood at his side, her hand never far from the knife at her belt.
