Five years passed, but the time felt like nothing more than a fleeting shadow. Five years of running from the ghosts of my past, with Alpha Aurelian by my side, my true Alpha, the only constant in a life that was still trying to piece itself back together. I thought we had escaped the ruin I had once caused. We had built a life—a family—on the ashes of what was left of me. Our two pups, full of wild, innocent joy, were the first real happiness I had known in years.
But when we returned to the packlands, there was no victory in the air, no triumph in our homecoming. I had been so focused on rebuilding my life that I failed to see the decay that still clung to the old world, the old pack.
The air was thick with a familiar weight as I followed my parents to the healer’s den. I expected rout
