Iron Howl never truly slept.

Chains rattled, fires hissed, and wolves paced restless in the dark. But that night, the fortress felt too quiet, like prey holding its breath before the predator’s strike.

Kael lay beside me in the chamber, chest rising and falling, scar glowing faintly with fever heat. My body still ached from the way we’d burned together earlier, but unease gnawed at my gut.

The child stirred inside me, not with comfort but with warning. A faint echo, like a cry muffled ...