THE COST OF BALANCE
The howling did not stop with the moon.
Even after its color returned to silver, even after the sky stilled and the ridge stopped groaning, something restless lingered in the valley. The wolves did not sleep deeply that night. They paced. They shifted. They woke at the smallest sound.
Elara did not sleep at all.
She stood on the balcony outside the Alpha quarters, the stone cool beneath her bare feet. The circlet rested against her brow like a shard of winter. It no longer hummed with warmth the way it had during the eclipse. Now it felt like a listening thing.
Waiting.
Below, torches burned longer than usual. Patrols doubled. Kael had not said the words aloud, but the pack felt it—this was not over.
It had only changed shape.
Behind her, the door opened quietly
