Months rolled into a crisp northern autumn. The central valley home rose sturdy and beautiful, timber and stone, wide hearths, rooms enough for five Alphas and the family they all quietly dreamed of. The five packs thrived under the new structure: trade routes opened, alliances strengthened, young wolves traveled freely between territories to train and court. Whispers spread across the continent of the impossible thing they had built, a Luna powerful enough to bind four Alphas, and four Alphas wise enough to share her. Not everyone heard those whispers with joy.
Far north, beyond the permafrost line where the Spectra Moonlight Pack carved their territory from ice and granite, Alpha Mathew Grimms listened intently.
Mathew was older than Alicia's mates, late forties, broad and scarred, wit
