Spring arrived softly.
The snow melted from Nightfall’s borders. New grass pushed through the thawed earth. The pack moved forward stronger, louder, alive.
Lucien watched it all from the porch of the pack house.
He no longer walked the borders.
He no longer trained the young wolves.
Breathing had become work.
The cough had deepened into something that lived in his chest permanently, like a slow-burning coal.
But his eyes were clear.
Peaceful.
The new Alpha Alaric led well. Steady. Fierce when necessary. Compassionate when it mattered.
Lucien felt no jealousy.
Only relief.
The world would continue.
That had once terrified him.
Now, it comforted him.
That evening, the moon rose full and impossibly bright.
Lucien felt it before he saw it.
A pull in his bones.
A thinning in t
