The Price of Being Untouchable
The storm did not leave with the dawn.
It lingered in the bones of the land, in the way the wind hissed through broken branches and how the clouds refused to fully part, hanging low and bruised over the Alpha Ridge. Even after the battle, after blood had soaked into the earth and the corrupted wardstone had been shattered—the world felt… unsettled.
Aria stood at the edge of the eastern overlook, cloak pulled tight around her shoulders, eyes fixed on the distant treeline.
She could still feel it.
Not the enemy.
Not the shadows.
But the cost.
Inside her chest, where her wolf and human halves intertwined, something had shifted permanently. The power she had unleashed to save the pack—the raw, ancient force that had answered her call—had not faded as it s
