The night didn’t feel like night. It felt like a turning point. Moonridge lay under a thin veil of silver light, the moon high and watchful above the forest. The pack had quieted, but it wasn’t peace that settled over the territory. It was anticipation. Now two, and everything was beginning to shift. Aria stood alone at the ridge, overlooking the valley beyond Moonridge’s borders, Kael’s territory.
Her eyes traced the distant treeline, memorising the shape of the land, the rise of hills, the shadows where wolves could hide. She had spent hours here already, mapping everything in her mind. Her fingers curled slowly at her sides. She could feel him, Kael’s influence lingered like a stain across the land—cold, invasive, wrong. Her wolf stirred uneasily. Aria inhaled deeply, letting the air f
