EMMA
The sirens fade the way a scream does after you’ve already gone numb.
Not because the danger is gone—but because something worse has taken its place.
Silence settles over Lune Noire like a held breath. The police stand at the gates, radios crackling, uncertainty rippling through their ranks. Damien is pulled aside for questioning, his confidence cracking now that his narrative has failed to stick the way he’d planned. The rival presence in the forest retreats—not defeated, just… waiting.
And Gabriel turns away from all of it.
Not from me. Never from me.
From the pack.
He steps forward into the open courtyard, snow crunching under his boots, and I feel it before I understand it—a shift in gravity. Wolves straighten. Conversations die. Even Clara stills beside me, her face pale,
