Louis’s POV….

The wind carried the scent of iron and ash long before the horns were sounded.

War always announced itself like that—quietly at first. A tightening in the chest. A heaviness in the air. The wolves felt it before the mind could name it.

I stood at the edge of the training grounds, my daughter pressed against my chest, her tiny breaths warm through the fabric of my cloak. Little Aria slept peacefully, unaware that the world she had been born into was about to ...