Chapter 62 : Moonpath Summit
Al's POV
The weight of leadership doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes, it settles in silence—dense, suffocating, a presence that presses against your chest until every heartbeat feels like a decision waiting to be made.
The great hall held that kind of silence.
It was vast and dimly lit, the air heavy with woodsmoke and the faint musk of wet fur. Old beams groaned under the weight of age, and the banners of ancient packs hung unmoving in the still air—each one a ghost of history, blood, and oath. The council had gathered beneath them in solemn purpose: from the frozen peaks of Frosthearth to the marshlands of Dawnvale, from the iron forges of Ironsummit to the wild forests of Thornwatch. Every alpha bore the look of one who had seen too much and lost even more
