Louis’s POV……

Morning came softly in my new territory.

Not with alarms or shouted orders or the crack of weapons—but with birdsong and the distant murmur of wolves waking to another day that did not involve running for their lives.

I lay still for a moment, staring up at the rough wooden beams of the cottage ceiling, listening. The land breathed differently here. Calmer. Younger. Like soil that had never known blood.

Beside me, little Aria shifted in her bed,a small ...