Chapter 59. It’s Not Just the Song

Selena’s POV

I never used to like silence as it felt like something waiting to go wrong. Now, I crave it.

Here, at the edge of Winter Mountain, wrapped in a thick blanket and a layer of post-battle exhaustion, the silence feels like a living thing. Not empty just. Resting. Watching. Preparing.

Below me, the packhouse slowly comes alive with patrols changing, pups squabbling somewhere near the western hall, someone sharpening a blade too aggressively for this early in the morning. I watch it all from the stone ledge just outside my window, a mug of cooling tea forgotten beside me. The mist is thick, curling low over the pines, the way it always does after a long night.

Last night was long. And hard. Shadow pack cracked open but not with violence, with truth. Cleo stood in the firelight and gave them a choice. And they chose her.

I didn’t say a word. But I felt it. Something shifting, rising. In her. In the people. In me.

A warmth deep in my