The sanctuary doesn't cheer after the hunters fall.
It bleeds.
Smoke still clings to the valley, coiling low over cracked stone and scorched earth. Wolves move through the haze in grim silence, tending wounds, hauling debris, whispering prayers to a moon that feels farther away than it ever has.
Lina sits wrapped in a blanket near the lake, eyes wide, hands trembling as she stares at the dark fissure in the ground where the hunters crawled through. She hasn't spoken since the last one fell.
Neither have I.
Power still hums beneath my skin, restless, unsettled, like it doesn't know whether to fade or prepare for another strike.
My wolf paces. "They tested us."
"Yes," I whisper. "And now they know where to hit."
Kade stands a few steps away, blood drying on his knuckles, jaw tight. He hasn't left my side since the fighting stopped, not close enough to touch, but close enough that I can feel the warmth of him through the bond.
Not possession.
Presence.
