Chapter 18

• Author's POV
• The daylight filtered through the dense canopy above, casting shifting shadows across the forest floor. The woods were unnaturally quiet, as if even the birds and beasts held their breath out of respect—or fear. Alpha Stefan strode ahead, flanked by his most trusted warriors and his loyal beta, Marcel. Their steps slowed as they reached the clearing where it had happened—where six Nightshade wolves had been slaughtered like animals.
• The stench of blood, long dried and bitter in the air, still clung to the earth like a curse. Bodies—or what was left of them—were strewn haphazardly across the ground. Severed limbs, mangled torsos, heads twisted at impossible angles. The earth was stained blackish-red, and the surrounding foliage had begun to rot from the sheer violence of the scene.