The wind of the Cold Frontier howled without end, a hollow, wailing sound that swallowed all lesser noise. Behind us, the distant echo of Kael’s howl had faded—but it had not disappeared. It lingered in the air like a ghost, buried deep within the frigid mountain currents, a raw, broken sound that refused to be forgotten.
We walked on through thinning snow, each step crunching softly over frost-covered stone. The trees here stood skeletal and bare, their branches stripped of warmth and life, bending relentlessly toward the north. No birds sang. No small creatures scurried beneath the underbrush. This land did not nurture. It tested.
His bond thread is fraying faster. Lira whispered inside my mind, her wolf senses locked onto the invisible tether still connecting me to Ironvein’s Alpha. I
